Quick Share and Nearby Share: How to Send Files Between Any Devices

You’ve got a photo on your phone and you need it on your laptop. Or your friend’s phone. Or the tablet in the other room. Emailing it to yourself works, but it’s slow, it compresses your images, and it feels like 2009.

Quick Share is Android’s answer to AirDrop, and it’s better than most people realise: as long as you know its rules. Here’s how to use it between phones, PCs, tablets and even iPhones, plus what to do when it stubbornly refuses to find the other device.

The quick answer: Quick Share is Android’s built-in file transfer system, formed when Google’s Nearby Share and Samsung’s Quick Share merged into one standard. It’s built into virtually every modern Android phone: no app to install. To send something, tap the share icon in any app, pick Quick Share, then choose the nearby device. To receive, pull down your quick settings and make sure Quick Share is switched on and set to a visibility mode that includes the sender. It works phone-to-phone, phone-to-tablet, and phone-to-Windows-PC via Google’s free Quick Share desktop app. Transfers run over Bluetooth for discovery and Wi-Fi for the actual data, so they’re fast and don’t need an internet connection or mobile data. Files arrive at full quality, uncompressed.

What Quick Share actually is (and why the name changed)

For years there were two competing systems doing the same job. Google built Nearby Share into stock Android. Samsung built Quick Share into Galaxy phones. They didn’t talk to each other properly, which was maddening if you had a Galaxy phone and a Pixel tablet.

Google and Samsung eventually merged the two into a single standard and kept the Samsung name. So if you remember “Nearby Share” and can’t find it, that’s why. It’s the same feature wearing a new badge. On some older phones that haven’t received the update, you may still see the old name. Functionally, treat them as the same thing.

Under the hood, it’s a two-stage process. Bluetooth Low Energy handles discovery. That’s how your phone spots nearby devices without draining the battery. Once you accept a transfer, the devices negotiate the fastest available connection, usually a direct Wi-Fi link between the two devices. That’s why a 200MB video moves in seconds while Bluetooth-only transfers would take minutes.

Crucially, none of this touches the internet. Your files don’t get uploaded to a server. If you’re on a plane, in a basement, or somewhere with no signal at all, Quick Share still works.

How to send a file with Quick Share

The flow is the same across almost every Android phone:

1. Open whatever holds the file: Photos, Files, a document viewer, a browser download.
2. Tap the share icon (the three connected dots, or on Samsung, a share button).
3. Pick Quick Share from the share sheet. On some phones it appears as a row of nearby device names right at the top of the sheet.
4. Wait a second or two for nearby devices to appear, then tap the one you want.
5. The other person taps Accept. Done.

You can select multiple files first and send them in one go. There’s no practical file-size limit for phone-to-phone transfers, though very large videos will obviously take longer.

Sending to a Windows PC

Google publishes a free Quick Share app for Windows. Install it, sign in with the same Google account you use on your phone, and your PC shows up as a destination in the phone’s share sheet. It works the other way too: right-click a file in Windows Explorer and you can push it to your phone.

Your PC needs working Bluetooth and Wi-Fi hardware for this. A desktop tower without a Bluetooth adapter won’t appear as a target, which trips up a lot of people. Adding a cheap USB Bluetooth dongle fixes it.

Sending to a Mac or iPhone

This is where things get messier. Google doesn’t publish a Quick Share app for macOS, so there’s no first-party way to Quick Share from Android to a Mac. Most people fall back on a cloud folder, a USB cable, or a cross-platform transfer app.

iPhone is changing, slowly. Google has started enabling direct Quick Share to AirDrop transfers on some of its newest Pixel hardware, meaning a Pixel can send straight to an iPhone with no extra app on either side. It’s limited to specific devices for now rather than being an Android-wide feature, so don’t assume your phone has it. Check your share sheet, if AirDrop targets appear, you’ve got it. If not, cloud storage or a shared link remains the reliable route.

Visibility settings: the setting that breaks everything

Most “Quick Share isn’t working” problems come down to visibility. This controls who can see your phone as a target, and the default is deliberately cautious.

Open your quick settings panel and long-press the Quick Share tile. You’ll typically see options along these lines:

• Everyone: anyone nearby can see your device and attempt to send. Usually switches itself off after ten minutes as a safety measure.
• Contacts: only people in your Google contacts, signed into their own account, can see you. This is the sensible everyday setting.
• Your devices: only devices signed into your own Google account. Good for phone-to-tablet.
• Off / Hidden: nobody can find you.

If you’re sending to a colleague who isn’t in your contacts, one of you needs to switch to Everyone temporarily. That single step resolves the overwhelming majority of “my phone won’t show up” complaints.

Brand differences worth knowing

Samsung (One UI): Quick Share is deeply integrated and Samsung layers extra features on top. You can share via a link that stays live for a limited time, which is handy for sending something to a person who isn’t nearby. Samsung also lets you share to nearby Galaxy devices even when the recipient’s screen is off. The quick settings tile is usually there by default.

Pixel: The cleanest implementation, and the first to get new features. Pixel phones show nearby devices directly in the share sheet without an extra tap.

Xiaomi (HyperOS): Xiaomi ships Quick Share alongside its own Mi Share system, and the two can confuse each other. If transfers keep failing, check that Quick Share specifically is enabled rather than assuming the Mi Share toggle covers it. Xiaomi’s aggressive battery optimisation also sometimes kills the background service: exempt Quick Share from battery restrictions if it keeps disappearing.

OnePlus and OPPO: Both include Quick Share plus their own device-to-device system for transfers between their own phones. The generic Quick Share option is the one that works cross-brand.

When Quick Share won’t find the other device

Work through these in order. The fix is usually near the top.

1. Both devices need Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on. Not connected to a network necessarily, but the radios have to be switched on. Airplane mode with Wi-Fi off will block it entirely.
2. Check visibility on the receiving device. Set it to Everyone temporarily.
3. Unlock and wake both screens. Discovery is unreliable when a screen is off, on most non-Samsung phones.
4. Move closer. Aim for within a metre or so during the initial handshake. You can move apart once the transfer starts.
5. Turn off any VPN. VPNs frequently interfere with the direct Wi-Fi link, causing transfers that start and then stall at 0%.
6. Toggle both radios off and on. Genuinely fixes it more often than it should.
7. Check battery saver. Aggressive power saving modes restrict background scanning. Turn it off and retry.
8. Restart both devices. The last resort that works surprisingly often.

If transfers connect but crawl, something is forcing the connection down to Bluetooth speed instead of Wi-Fi. A VPN, a captive-portal Wi-Fi network, or an outdated version of Google Play services are the usual culprits.

Quick Share vs the alternatives

Quick Share is the right tool for moving a handful of files between devices in the same room. It’s not the right tool for everything.

For moving your entire life to a new handset (apps, settings, message history, home screen layout), you want a proper migration, not hundreds of individual transfers. Our guide on how to transfer everything to a new Android phone covers the tools built for that job.

For files you need to share with someone across the country, cloud storage or a share link beats any local transfer. And if the reason you’re shuffling files around is that your phone is out of space, moving them elsewhere is treating the symptom. There are better ways to free up storage on Android without deleting anything.

Frequently asked questions

Does Quick Share use mobile data?

No. The transfer itself happens over a direct connection between the two devices, usually Wi-Fi Direct, and never routes through the internet. You can be completely offline and it still works. The only thing that occasionally needs a connection is verifying contacts for the Contacts visibility mode, which is a tiny amount of data.

Why can’t I Quick Share from Android to iPhone?

For most Android phones, there’s still no native path to iPhone, because Apple’s AirDrop and Google’s Quick Share have historically been closed to each other. Google has begun opening this up on its newest Pixel hardware, which can send directly to AirDrop. If your phone doesn’t support it, use a cloud link, a messaging app, or a cross-platform transfer tool instead.

Does Quick Share reduce photo or video quality?

No. Files transfer byte-for-byte, at original resolution, with metadata intact. That’s the main advantage over sending photos through messaging apps, which usually compress heavily. If you need a full-quality copy of a photo, Quick Share is the way to move it.

Is Quick Share safe to leave switched on?

Yes, if you keep visibility set to Contacts or Your devices. Nobody can push a file onto your phone without you tapping Accept first. There’s no silent delivery. The Everyone setting is the only one worth being careful with, and Android already limits how long it stays active before reverting on its own.