Sharing files on Android is about to get much easier

By Bryan M. Wolfe Published January 9, 2024

Android 14 — Google

During CES 2024 in Las Vegas, Google announced a collaboration with Samsung to make file-sharing easier through a new feature called Quick Share. This feature is designed to create a unified cross-Android solution, enabling seamless sharing of files within the Android and Chromebook ecosystems. Additionally, Google intends to pre-install the Quick Share app on Windows PCs, further expanding its reach.

A list of nearby devices will appear when you tap the Quick Share icon. You can then choose which files to share with whom without compromising your privacy. You have complete control over your phone’s settings and can decide whether to share files with everyone, only your contacts, or just your own devices.

Recommended Videos

Quick Share will be released to all Nearby Share-enabled devices starting in February. Introduced by Google in 2020, Nearby Share allows users to share pictures, files, and text simply and conveniently. Samsung also offers a similar feature called Quick Share, which is highly popular among its users. Now, Nearby Share and Samsung’s Quick Share features are transforming into Google’s new Quick Share solution — hopefully making sharing on Android a bit simpler going forward.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Google has announced a few other new features at CES. In addition to Quick Share, the company revealed that Fast Pair support will be expanding to Chromecast with Google TV and to other Google TV-based devices this year. Furthermore, Chromecast will make casting capabilities available to more apps and devices. Google also announced at CES that more devices will soon support Matter, and Google apps and services will be available in more cars.

Many new mobile products are being revealed at CES, including Lenovo’s new Android-based tablet dubbed “Tab M11” and two new slates from TCL. A new batch of folding phones and many new phones from TCL were also revealed at the event. You should also check out the weirdest mobile devices announced at CES.

Topics

Mobile and A/V Freelancer

Bryan M. Wolfe has over a decade of experience as a technology writer. He writes about mobile.

Mobile

It just got easier to protect your Android phone from thieves

Android 15 theft protection.

With the release of Android 15 on Pixel devices, Google has introduced several new privacy and security enhancements. Among the notable additions are the improved theft protection features that are designed to make it harder for thieves to access your data. Initially, it was a bit difficult to find these settings. However, as Android Authority first noted, that's about to change.

When Android 15 launched, to find the theft protection menu on devices running Android 15, you had to follow these steps:

Mobile

Organizing your Google Photos library will soon get a lot easier

organizing your google photos library will soon get a lot easier september 2024

As reported by Android Authority, the Google Photos app for Android is expected to receive an update with new organization features. These enhancements could make photo management a little bit easier. The new tools will benefit anyone who regularly backs up photos and videos from third-party apps to Google Photos.

The latest report reveals that an APK teardown of Google Photos v6.99 unveiled a new option within the app’s “Show content from other apps” section called “Only show backed-up content.” By choosing this option, you can view images from third-party apps backed up or waiting to be backed up. This gives you better control over what appears in your main photo feed.

Mobile

RCS messages are about to look a little different on your Android phone

Google Messages app on a Pixel 8 Pro, showing an RCS Chat message thread.

You might soon see a change in how your messages look on your Android phone. Google Messages is rolling out a change to how the type of message is displayed. At present, it says either "Text message" or "RCS message" at the bottom, but the new change will shorten these to either (Text) or (RCS).

9to5Google's Abner Li reports the change and points out that the phrasing could be reduced to either Text or RCS to streamline the appearance and make it look less technical. That said, only a limited number of people have reported the change so far. Google has a tendency to roll updates out slowly, however, so that's not surprising.