Google’s Nearby Share can now send files to your sleeping devices

A lot of people are still not aware that Android has an equivalent to AirDrop called Nearby Share, and that’s a shame because it only keeps getting better and better. Earlier this year, the sharing service added support for Windows, enabling you to share files between your Android device and your PC. Now, the service appears to have quietly rolled out a nifty quality-of-life improvement that’ll make sharing even more convenient between your devices: the ability to send things to your devices even when their screens are off.

When you previously opened Nearby Share on a sender device, only devices whose screens were on and unlocked could appear in the list of devices you could send to. This was done to save battery life, as devices have to periodically broadcast their availability over Bluetooth in order to appear as a receiver target in Nearby Share. That’s not a big deal when the screen is on and the phone is unlocked, as the battery drain from periodic Bluetooth scans is negligible compared to other battery guzzlers like the screen itself or the modem. However, when the screen is off, it’s generally best to throttle scans or services to maximize battery life, and that’s what Google did with Nearby Share for the longest time.

We don’t know exactly when this change rolled out, but we recently noticed that Nearby Share was picking up our devices whose screens were off (h/t GreenShades9 on Twitter). In the video embedded above, you can see that my Pixel 7 Pro immediately appeared in the list of devices after I opened Nearby Share on my Pixel 6 Pro. In contrast, my Zenfone 9 only appeared in the list after I turned its screen on and unlocked it.

When recording the video, I hadn’t signed my Zenfone 9 into the same Google account I used for my Pixel 6 Pro and Pixel 7 Pro. After I later signed into the same Google account on my Zenfone 9, it appeared in the list of devices I could share to even when its screen was off. Thus, I think this works only if both the sender and the receiver are signed into the same Google account.

While this admittedly isn’t a major change, it does make Nearby Share more convenient to use, as you won’t have to grab your phone anymore to send files to it. For tech reviewers or developers with lots of test devices on their desks, this will be a welcome change. Hopefully, this improvement will come to other devices soon.