How to activate nearby sharing
The easiest and most universal way to find the nearby share is to go to your phone’s Settings menu, at Google, Press on Device connections, and here you should see Share nearby. If it’s not there, you probably don’t have the feature yet. The other way to find it is through Settings> Connected devices> Connection preferences> Nearby sharing, but this is where the menus may be different depending on your phone.
Following the first approach to find it in the Google section of your Settings menu, tap Share nearby. Activate it and by doing so you can change your device name and choose your device visibility. If you don’t want to share your name while sending files or photos with other devices nearby, it’s a good idea to change your device’s name to something more nondescript. You can only use Nearby Sharing with people in your Contacts list.
In terms of visibility of the device, you have three options: All contacts, Some contacts, and Hidden. If you choose the first option, your phone will be visible to your contacts that have Nearby Sharing enabled, and you will see devices near you with Nearby Sharing open. Some contacts, as the name suggests, allow you to select people from your contacts list to use nearby sharing with. And Hidden means that no one nearby will be able to see your device, but you can still see your contacts’ devices if they try to share something nearby.
There is a big caveat with nearby sharing. To use it, you need to have all of your contacts’ email addresses (the one they use for their Google Account) stored in their contact information. Otherwise, if your contact has verified their Google account with a phone number, you can use nearby sharing with them. To connect your phone number to your Google account, go here on your phone and switch to your device. Authentication may take some time.
Back in the nearby sharing settings, you can also choose if you want to send items via The data, Wi-Fi only, or Without Internet. If you don’t have an unlimited data plan, it might be a good idea to choose the last two options.
How to use sharing nearby
Anytime you want to share something with a friend or family member nearby, whether it’s an address in Google Maps, a photo, a file, or a web link, just tap the Share button, and in the Share menu, find and tap Share nearby. Your phone will start to search for nearby devices that you can share with.
The person you’re sharing the share with will need to be relatively close, and they may need to press a pop-up notification to become visible to you. You and the person you’re sharing content with may be prompted to turn on Bluetooth and location if they aren’t already.
Once they’re visible, tap their device name (they’ll have to accept), and that’s it! The sharing process will begin and should only take a few seconds, depending on what you’re sending.
Ultimately, Google says nearby sharing will work on Chromebooks, letting you quickly send stuff from your phone to your ChromeOS-equipped laptop with just a few clicks.
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