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Google has just released the Nearby Share feature on Aug. I'm interested in its technical aspects, but I haven't found any articles on the technical details of Nearby Share. Are there any hints?

I also noticed that Google already has the Nearby connection API on Android. This makes me wonder if they have any relations? e.g., is Nearby Share implemented using the nearby connection API?

(Yeah I see that the former is a full-fledged, ready-to-use functionality, and the latter is a API for developers and supports more than file-sharing. But their names look similiar, and so do the communication methods they use, like Bluetooth, BLE, and P2P wifi. )

sylvia shen
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I'm the lead of Nearby Share and Nearby Connections at Google.

Yup, Nearby Share is built on top of the Nearby Connections API. Share is the user-facing component of the two, and adds a concept of 'Identity' that Nearby Connections lacks. The reliability & throughput improvements are all a part of Nearby Connections, so users of the API should benefit.

Let me know if you have any specific questions and I'll do my best to answer them.

Xlythe
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  • Hey Xlythe, do you plan to release APIs for other platforms? I'd like to use Nearby Connections for communicating between my phone and desktops. – Saket Jun 10 '21 at 03:01
  • There's a copy of Nearby Connections (C++) available on GitHub (https://github.com/google/nearby-connections), but unfortunately it's a bit complicated to pull all of its dependencies and get it to build. We do want to improve that, but it's a long term effort. The Windows-specific bits are in progress. – Xlythe Jun 11 '21 at 04:19
  • Very exciting. It'd be really sweet if you can release this as a kotlin multiplatform library! – Saket Jun 11 '21 at 19:32
  • Is their any library or planning to release one, in case i want to implement the feature in my app – Zakir Sheikh Jun 04 '22 at 11:16
  • As mentioned above, Nearby Connections is available through Google Play services on Android, and the C++ library on GitHub supports both iOS and Windows. – Xlythe Jun 04 '22 at 19:41