Nearby Share, AirDrop's rival, adds new Chromebook perk — no more 'self-emails' to send files to your own devices

Nearby Share
Nearby Share (Image credit: Google)

Nearby Share, the Android counterpart of Apple AirDrop, lets users beam files to close-range devices seamlessly, efficiently and quickly. However, Nearby Share isn't optimal when it comes to sending content to yourself. As TheNextWeb pointed out, many resort to sending files to their devices via self-emailing or cloud storage.

Fortunately, as spotted by Chrome Story, Google is poised to add a new Chromebook feature to Nearby Share called "Self Share." This convenient perk enables seamless sharing between Chromebook users' own devices.

New Chromebook feature spotted: Self Share

Nearby Share, introduced in 2020, sticks out its proverbial antenna to "sense" close-range devices, allowing users to send images, documents and other files to nearby friends, co-workers and more. 

Nearby Share

Nearby Share (Image credit: Google)

However, Self Share builds upon Nearby Share. It makes it easier for Chromebook users to transfer files to their own devices — as long as they're within reach and signed into their Google account.

As of this writing, Self Share is launching as a Chrome OS Canary developer flag. In other words, Self Share hasn't yet rolled out to the general public and it will be some time before it's widely available. 

According to Chrome Story, when Self Share hits the mass market, Chromebook users will see a "Send to Your Devices" option under the Nearby Share menu. 

As mentioned, this feature is set to arrive on Chrome OS, but there's a chance that Google will expand the new self-share function to other devices in the future. After all, the search-engine announced at CES 2022 that Nearby Share is coming to Windows PCs later this year, so there's a good chance that Self Share will get a similar roadmap.

Kimberly Gedeon

Kimberly Gedeon, holding a Master's degree in International Journalism, launched her career as a journalist for MadameNoire's business beat in 2013. She loved translating stuffy stories about the economy, personal finance and investing into digestible, easy-to-understand, entertaining stories for young women of color. During her time on the business beat, she discovered her passion for tech as she dove into articles about tech entrepreneurship, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and the latest tablets. After eight years of freelancing, dabbling in a myriad of beats, she's finally found a home at Laptop Mag that accepts her as the crypto-addicted, virtual reality-loving, investing-focused, tech-fascinated nerd she is. Woot!