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Android phones (like Google Pixel phones and Samsung phones) have a feature called Nearby Share. When sharing an item, you can select "Nearby" or "Nearby Share", and it will allow you to share an item to a nearby Android phone or ChromeOS device.

According to Google's blog post, it uses these technologies:

Nearby Share then automatically chooses the best protocol for fast and easy sharing using Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy, WebRTC or peer-to-peer WiFi — allowing you to share even when you’re fully offline.

Screenshot from blog post

Is there a way to share using "Nearby Share" from an Android phone to an Ubuntu device, or vice-versa?

Flimm
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    Maybe not exactly what you are asking, but you can try https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1319/gsconnect/ . It uses the Wireless network. – FedKad Dec 06 '22 at 18:59
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    Maybe Canonical can help?! https://help.ubuntu.com/stable/ubuntu-help/bluetooth-send-file.html.en (untested) – Michael Feb 08 '23 at 07:18
  • That seemed to work! I could share a file from my Ubuntu laptop to an Android phone with "Nearby Share" enabled. I don't know about the reverse, though. – Flimm Feb 08 '23 at 12:49
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    @Michael If you post that as an answer, (with more than just a link but with instructions), I'll upvote the answer and accept it. – Flimm Feb 09 '23 at 06:21
  • Right now is not a standard, is just a proprietary tool which use a variety of connection technologies, including Bluetooth, WiFi, NFC, UWB and WebRTC, to automatically find an efficient way for your friend to send you the photo, even if you’re not online. For the time being the best solution is GSConnect/KDEConnect – Pablo Bianchi Apr 11 '23 at 22:52
  • @PabloBianchi yes sure its not a standard, but neither is (gs/kde)connect, but what's more important is its not "proprietary" in any meaning I know of, as Google makes the code available for "nearby" under the Apache License: https://github.com/google/nearby which is far less restrictive than the GPL that GSconnect uses for example. – Maks Jul 06 '23 at 23:40

4 Answers4

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The code for Nearby is available from Google under a open source license.

In a quick search, despite a Linux build being supported, it unfortunately looks like no one has yet packaged it up in a nice easy to use fashion for Ubuntu yet.

Maks
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    NOTE: Linux has no mediums implemented.

    Looks like it's more than just a packaging issue. Someone would have to write a backend for it.

     – Jonathan Baldwin Sep 24 '23 at 00:04
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The nearest that I have been able to find so far, is a work-in-progress project CrossDrop

https://github.com/PlutoHDDev/CrossDrop

CrossDrop is a partial implementation of Google's Nearby Share in Flutter for macOS, iOS and Linux.

Note: At the moment I don't have the time to work on implementing Nearby Share here, even though that's what it's all about. I've started working on it, but I don't have the time to finish it at the moment.

The app lives in your menu bar and saves files to your downloads folder.

Flimm
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Greg Bacchus
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There is another application named rquickshare (available on GitHub). It worked for me. Unfortunately it doesn't (yet) have a command-line-only mode, but at least it works. It is compatible with Android Quick Share / Nearby Share.

zx485
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MarSoft
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Try Warpinator. You can share files and folders. It has an app in the play store as well as the app store. Link to Warpinator

sdMickey
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    Is this compatible with "Nearby Share" for Android? Or is it an alternative to it? – Flimm Aug 11 '23 at 16:15
  • @Flimm It's an alternative to it and a pretty good one. You can send and receive folder structures as well. And, it's pretty fast. – sdMickey Aug 25 '23 at 18:17
  • This only works if the two devices are on the same LAN (on Wi-Fi or Ethernet). "Nearby Share" works when two devices are near each other, even if they are not on the same LAN. – Flimm Feb 03 '24 at 00:42