Nearby share

How it works

Android Nearby Share and similar tools discover locally and copy over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi Direct. Both devices must be awake and accepting. It is a direct transfer. It does not cross the Internet and does not leave a portal log.

A tech sends a 80 MB manual to a tablet in the same room. Discovery lists the tablet. The tablet accepts. A laptop on a different platform sees nothing. They use a link for that laptop.

How it differs

Nearby share is not a cloud sync. The file does not appear on the recipient's other devices unless that device's own sync picks up the local copy.

Names on the discovery list are easy to spoof in a crowd.

Confirm the device.

On the ticket

• The practical close is a log line: time, actor, byte count, result.
• Without that line the transfer is a story.
• With it, the next person can see whether this door did what the ticket claimed.
• If the path is shared, say so in the partner profile so a later change does not silently pick a different limit, key, or region.
• On a real ticket, write down the door, the byte count, and the clock.
• For nearby share, that means naming the host or bucket, the expected size, and the time the other side must have a complete file.
• A progress bar is not that record.
• A 200 response that arrives before the complete call is not that record.
• If a retry is allowed, say how many and whether it resumes.
• If a person must approve the send, name the person.
• Partners who receive nearby share files should match on hash or size before they import.
• A same-length corrupt file passes a size check and fails a hash.
• Keep the published hash off the only channel an attacker can edit, or treat it as a corruption check rather than a substitution check.
• When the path changes, new key, new region, new cap, update the profile the same day so the next run does not use a stale limit.