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Unofficial app brings partial Nearby Share support to macOS

Nearby Share is now available on macOS courtesy of an unofficial app called “NearDrop,” which mimics the Windows function and allows you to share files wirelessly from Google devices to your Apple computers.

NearDrop comes from developer grishka and offers a way for your macOS devices to receive files from your Android phone, tablet, and potentially your Chromebook using Nearby Share (h/t Mishaal Rahman). Sadly, it only works in one direction at this point in time, and there are a few other caveats. However, the ability to send files from your Android to your macOS hardware without a wire might be worth some of the trade-offs.

Your Mac will also be set to “Visible to everyone” at all times to anyone connected to your network. According to the documentation, changing visibility settings requires Google’s servers, which this method does not enable. Nearby Share does not work when trying to send files from your macOS hardware, but that might not matter to you.

The app only works over Wi-Fi at present, so you’ll need your phone and Mac connected to the same wireless network. You’ll need to enable notifications for NearDrop within the “System Settings” section of your Mac, otherwise, you won’t see the pop-up to confirm transfers. After following the instructions to get the app working on my MacBook Pro, I could see the device on my Android phone, but you won’t get notifications on your macOS devices unless you enable it in settings.

You may also need to play around with some settings to get Nearby Share working correctly with macOS. I found that it would fail on my own device, but needs a little tweaking to work properly. There are plenty of people using it flawlessly according to the original Reddit thread announcing this third-party effort.

There are inherent risks in installing software from an unidentified developer, so we would say tread cautiously if you are desperate for a workaround to get Nearby Share on your macOS devices. It wouldn’t be a great shock if Google did eventually develop a dedicated client to enable Nearby Share on Mac.

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Avatar for Damien Wilde Damien Wilde

Damien is a UK-based video producer for 9to5Google. Find him on Twitter: @iamdamienwilde. Email: damien@9to5mac.com