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There were times when the technology was not so advanced. Sharing texts, links and photos among peers was a great feat. Bluetooth, SMS, and MMS connectivity and the use of emails to share images and videos directly through camera devices was the norm. However, thanks to much-needed technological advancement, sharing all of these things between devices gradually became much easier as app developers started creating messaging services like WhatsApp and others. Although this peer-to-peer sharing became very efficient all these years, one thing that remained unchanged was the sharing of applications between devices. Usually when a friend of yours wanted an app on their device, they wouldn’t have had the option to share that app with them. Instead, they would have to go to the app store to download it on their phones.
However, Google Play’s Close Share feature will now make it possible. Since 2018, the idea has been circulating and Google has been working on it. Finally, now, Google has announced that very soon, this feature will be coming as an update on our phones as part of a global launch.
As the name suggests, Near Share will allow you to share Android apps with recipients through a simple process. If you are the sender, you will have to click on the ‘Manage apps and games’ page in the Google Play Store, and from there, just open the ‘Share apps’ menu, which will be a new addition.
Once you touch this option, a menu will appear listing all the applications that are available to be transferred. You can browse them and choose the application you want to share. The person who will be on the receiving end will only have to accept the applications that are sent to them. Google Play claims that the transfer speed is exceptionally fast compared to a normal download. Also, this transfer can be done without an Internet connection. Much like how Bluetooth works.
Google Play also claims that this type of transfer can help save a large amount of data, and people with slow internet connectivity can benefit from this feature as well. Instead of wasting your data on downloading some apps, you can ask your friends to just share those apps with them via the Nearby Share feature.
As mentioned above, there are plenty of ‘peer-to-peer’ sharing options available, but this feature sounds more promising in terms of efficiency and straightforward focus and use. Let’s see how people react when it is officially launched and how it makes a difference.
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