Quick Share

Quick Share file transfer progress animation receives Material Design 3 tweaks

Damien Wilde | Apr 9 2024 - 1:47 am PT

Quick Share is now getting an updated and refreshed transfer progress animation that adheres better to Material Design 3 principles.

The pop-up panel has developed over time with Material You elements slowly being added and tuned since the service was added to all devices running Android 6.0 and higher back in 2020. Since then, Nearby Share has been rebranded to Quick Share, which has brought even more changes.

Google is tuning the wire-free transfer system with Material Design 3 progress bars when sending on-device files using Quick Share. Android Police spotted this minor change and we’re also seeing the option on a few of our test devices. The original design documentation states that this change should “capture attention through motion” and his referred to as a “determinate circular progress indicator.”

When initiating a transfer between multiple devices from the Share Sheet, a small circle will appear around the device in question once a connection has been established. Quick Share’s previous design was more utilitarian, with a simple circular progress bar animation.

When using Quick Share now, you’ll see an outline with a colored progress bar that isn’t connected to the original outline. It reminds me of a train carriage running on a circular track, and there is a higher contrast between the progress “track” and the “indicator” to help you better see transfer progress. It is also softer with rounded corners and appears to follow Dynamic Color principles. You can see the differences between the pre-update change and new version below:

In terms of visual changes, a new Quick Share transfer progress animation is tiny. However, it’s this attention to detail that is helping differentiate Google’s big Material You changes versus iOS and other Android OEM skins – so we’re here for it.

This change appears to be rolling out right now – but as AP notes – is likely to arrive via a server-side update. We’re seeing this on devices in several regions hinting that it is coming to more Android phones over the coming days.