Quick Share

Quick Share on Android now shows a handy percentage for transfer progress

Ben Schoon | Nov 3 2024 - 4:45 pm PT

Rolling out now, Quick Share on Android now shows a percentage to make it more clear the status of an ongoing file transfer.

Quick Share on Android works much like Apple’s widely-used AirDrop feature. Photos, videos, files, and more can be easily and wirelessly shared between Android and iOS devices, as well as to Windows. However, for bigger file transfers, there’s been a UI element lacking.

Since the time when it was still called “Nearby Share,” Google’s sharing option didn’t show the progress of an incoming file transfer very clearly. The sender could easily see the percentage of the transfer that’d been completed, but the recipient only saw a progress ring around the device icon (as pictured above).

That’s now been updated, as Quick Share for Android has been updated to show a percentage when a file is being transferred. The update has rolled out within the past week or so, and appears to be available widely across both Google’s version of Quick Share, as well as Samsung’s version, as the two do have some UI differences throughout. We’re seeing the update across multiple Pixel devices and a Galaxy S22 Ultra, all on separate Google accounts too. Some noticed the change on some devices in mid-October, but it wasn’t widely available at the time.

You might not even have time to see this percentage when transferring a simple picture or something small in size, like a link, but it’s going to more clearly show how much time is left in the transfer for something larger, like a video.

This is obviously a very minor change on Google’s part, but it’s a welcome one nonetheless.