How to use Nearby Share for easy file sharing on ChromeOS

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Enable Nearby Share on ChromeOS

The first thing to be done is to enable Nearby Share on ChromeOS. To do that, click on the system tray and then click the gear icon to open the Settings app. Type nearby in the search bar and then select Nearby Share from the results. In the resulting window, click the On/Off slider (Figure A) to enable the feature.

Figure A

If you like, you can change the name of your Chromebook by clicking Change device name. If you use multiple devices, you might want to make sure to change this name so you know which Chromebook you’re sharing to or from. At the same time, you can define to whom your Chromebook is visible. Click Change visibility and, in the resulting window (Figure B), click Some contacts, scroll the list, and enable Nearby Share for any contacts that need to be able to share files to your Chromebook. I highly recommend doing this, so you don’t open your Chromebook such that anyone can share files to it (which could become a security issue).

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Figure B

Click Save and you’re ready to start sharing files.

Share a file from ChromeOS to Android

Now that Nearby Share is enabled on your Chromebook, let’s take a look at how you share files from ChromeOS to Android. Open the Files app on your Chromebook and navigate to a folder housing a file you want to share. Two-finger-tap the file in question and, from the resulting menu (Figure C), select Share.

Figure C

In the resulting popup (Figure D), select Nearby Share.

Figure D

Make sure to have the device that will receive the file nearby and, once it appears in the list (Figure E), select it and click Next.

Figure E

On the destination device, you’ll be prompted to accept the incoming file share (Figure F). Once you’ve accepted the file share, the file will be saved to the local storage on the device.

Figure F

And that’s all there is to enabling and using Nearby Share on ChromeOS. Once you get the hang of sharing files between your Google devices, you’ll wonder how you managed prior to this feature.