Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google is forcing OEMs to combine the Fast Share machine visibility consent display into the setup wizard.
- This requirement will apply to gadgets launching with Android 15 or increased.
- Integrating this web page will hopefully increase consciousness and adoption of Fast Share amongst Android customers.
If you wish to share recordsdata between Chromebooks, Home windows PCs, and Android gadgets, there are quite a lot of file sharing companies you’ll be able to select from that do the job, however Fast Share has the bottom barrier to entry. That’s as a result of it’s baked into most Chromebooks in addition to most Android gadgets, so that you don’t need to obtain further software program to ship or obtain recordsdata. Nonetheless, many individuals aren’t even conscious their machine has Fast Share, which provides a little bit of friction to file transfers. Fortunately, Google and its OEM companions are including a Fast Share web page to Android’s setup wizard that can hopefully increase consciousness and adoption of the file sharing device.
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Google rolled out Fast Share (previously Close by Share) in 2020 to all Android gadgets working Android 6.0 or increased with the Google Play Companies app put in. As Google Play Companies is bundled with the Google Play Retailer, it’s out there on the overwhelming majority of telephones and tablets that run Android. That signifies that Fast Share is obtainable on a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of Android telephones and tablets all over the world, giving it the same degree of availability as Apple’s AirDrop function. Sadly, there are various Android customers who do not know Fast Share even exists, resulting in many individuals asking if Android even has a comparable file sharing device.
To unravel this, Google is introducing new necessities that OEMs have to fulfill in the event that they need to bundle Google Cellular Companies (GMS) — which incorporates Google Play Companies, Google Play Retailer, and different proprietary Google apps — on their gadgets. These necessities are enumerated within the GMS Necessities doc, which was lately up to date to record each requirement that gadgets launching with Android 15 have to fulfill to be able to bundle GMS. In keeping with this doc, gadgets that launch with Android 15 or increased are required to “combine Google’s proximity-based machine visibility consumer consent display” of their setup wizard.
This web page will allow you to select your machine visibility setting, i.e. who can share with you. When you can already do that from Fast Share’s settings or its tile, the good thing about including this selection to the setup wizard is that individuals who aren’t conscious of the function’s existence will find out about it. That’s as a result of the web page additionally features a transient clarification of Fast Share, as we confirmed off a number of months in the past.
Though Google says its Fast Share setup web page is obligatory for gadgets launching with Android 15 or increased, it received’t require each machine to make use of Google’s model of the web page. That’s as a result of Google carved out an exception for gadgets that implement a “customized Fast Share consumer integrating Google’s Close by SDK.” The one customized Fast Share consumer that I do know of that integrates Google’s Close by SDK is Samsung’s model of Fast Share out there on Galaxy gadgets. Thus, Galaxy gadgets received’t have to point out Google’s Fast Share setup web page, however I wouldn’t be stunned if Samsung implements its personal model of this web page anyway.
