Hadlee Simons / Android Authority
SL;DR
- A developer has made an app that allows Nearby Share file transfers between Android and macOS.
- The unofficial macOS app can currently only allow receiving files over Wi-Fi LAN.
- It’s still a neat app, though, given Google doesn’t have an official solution for macOS just yet.
A developer has created an unofficial app for macOS that transfers files between Android devices and macOS computers using Google’s Nearby Share feature.
The app is called NearDrop (h/t Mishaal Rahman) and is a partial implementation of Nearby Share. It currently allows your macOS PC to receive files using Nearby Share on your Android device. That means you cannot use it to send files from your PC to an Android device. The app also only works over Wi-Fi LAN for now, so your Mac and your Android device must be on the same network for it to work. However, the fact that the app works as intended is commendable in itself.
I downloaded the app from the developer’s GitHub page. It’s got a few steps to it, and you have to be comfortable downloading an app from an unidentified developer. However, once done, transferring photos from my Pixel 7 to my MacBook Air running macOS Ventura using Nearby Share was a breeze. My phone instantly recognized my MacBook as a Nearby Share device. The transfer happened in seconds after I accepted the files on my computer.
It won’t be surprising if Google also eventually builds a Nearby Share app for macOS. The same functionality was recently released for Windows PCs as a beta app. But if you’re looking to start transferring files from your Android device to your macOS PC using Nearby Share right now, the unofficial NearDrop app is your best option.