Sharing files from Android deviceswas a rather janky affair, sometimes involving cloud storage or third-party apps, until Nearby Share burst onto the scene and simplified the process. It came even closer to Apple’s AirDrop in terms of function with support for sharing files, folders, and text to Windows computersintroduced earlier this year. However, convenient data sharing is the bane of corporate data security, and with billions of people using Android for work, the concerns are amplified greatly. Google is finally addressing this concern with an update disabling Nearby Share by default on Android devices when you enable a work profile.
Data security is essential for organizations, and plugging leaks usually entails preventing unauthorized and undocumented transfer of data within the enterprise, or to outside agencies. It is easy to imagine someone could use the convenience of Nearby Share to move company data from their work phone running Android to a personal device using Nearby Share. IT department administrators in companies around the world have battled with this security risk for long, because there is no way to disable Nearby Share for work profiles. Samsung even documented a workaround, suggesting admins disable device features like location, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to prevent Nearby Share activation.
However, all these hacks are now a thing of the past. In a recent change to theGoogle System Updates documentationfor developers and users, Google mentioned Nearby Share will be switched off by default for work profiles (viaAssembleDebug on X). This change is rolling out to Android devices worldwide as a part of the Google Play services v23.41 update. Google doesn’t clarify if the feature is disabled until you switch profiles on the Android device, or if it’s just the new default and not a lock on the feature.
In either case, this change to Nearby Share behavior in work profiles should give IT admins some respite from worries about data misuse involving the feature. That said, Google seems focused on making Nearby Share better and easier to use. Recent updates through Google Play servicesredirected content received through Nearby Shareinto a dedicated folder on your device storage, instead of combining it with browser downloads. Hopefully, more thoughtful improvements make Nearby Share the true AirDrop rival we always envisioned it to be.
