The big Nearby Share rebranding is starting to roll out on Pixels

Google and Samsung teamed up to improve Android’s AirDrop competitor Nearby Share, rebranding it to Samsung’s Quick Share for everyone in the process. The announcement was initially made at CES 2024. This new name has now started rolling out to the Google Pixel 8 and more Pixel phones.

It’s currently unclear which underlying system components need to be updated to receive the new version of Nearby Share, but according to Android expert Mishaal Rahman on X, multiple Pixel owners have reported to him that they’re now seeing Quick Share rather than Nearby Share on their phones. The new Quick Share branding with its different icon shows up in all the places that Nearby Share was in before, and there is a banner when you first use it, explaining that it’s replacing the old name.

While the new Quick Share branding is now rolling out to Pixel phones, it’s not identical to Quick Share on Samsung devices. Mishaal Rahman notes that Google’s version is part of the Play Services, making it possible to roll it out to all supported Android phones, while Samsung’s Quick Share is its own app provided by the manufacturer. The Samsung version is receiving an update that makes it compatible with Google’s version, though.

To prevent duplicate Quick Share targets on Samsung devices, Google will disable Nearby Share (or its version of Quick Share, to be precise) on the manufacturer’s handsets. This is already the case on the brand-new Samsung Galaxy S24 series, which already has the updated version of Quick Share pre-installed and doesn’t allow users to access Google’s version of it.

The new name and logo put emphasis on the process itself (quickly sharing files with people nearby) rather than the required proximity (quickly sharing files with people nearby). The two arrows pointing towards each other and the blue background might certainly make it clearer what the service is meant for at a glance.

Besides the new name, Quick Share doesn’t bring a lot of new features to the table. It slightly bumps up the maximum upload limit per file from 3 to 5GB and makes it easier to share files and data across Samsung phones and those from other manufacturers, eliminating the possibility of a Samsung user inadvertently choosing Quick Share rather than Nearby Share. Google is also working with more PC manufacturers, including LG, to pre-install Quick Share on their devices, which would make the sharing system more ubiquitous. It’s likely that Samsung’s added weight behind the shared standard will make it easier to convince more manufacturers.

Initially, the rollout was expected to begin in February, but since we’re only one day away at press time, it’s likely that Google decided to start the process a little earlier.