Google is rolling out a new Tap to Share feature for Android devices, and with the latest updates, we get a sneak peek at how it looks and works.
The ability to tap two phones together has quite a history on Android, with the long-running Android Beam allowing users to tap their phones together to share photos, files, and more. It’s long since been removed, though it lives on via a little-known shortcut in Android’s Quick Share feature.
It was recently revealed that Google is working In the new version of Find to Share for Android devices and we were able to take a quick look.
About APK Insight: In this APK Insight post, we have decompiled the latest version of the app that Google has uploaded to the Play Store. When we decompile these files (called APK for Android apps), we can see various lines of code inside this token for possible future features. Please note that Google may or may not ship these features, and our interpretation of what they are may be imperfect. We’ll try to launch those closer to completion, but just to show you what they’ll look like if they ship. With that in mind, read on.
In Google’s latest updates, a new pop-up has appeared that demonstrates “how sharing works”. The pop-up explains:
Instantly share contact information, photos, videos, links, location and more
- Unlock your phone.
- Place the top of both phones on top of each other with the screens facing up. You should be able to see both screens
- Hold the phones together until they glow.
doesn’t work? Try holding both phones back to back.
This is accompanied by a short “glow” animation that appears when two phones interact with each other.
None of this is fully functional yet, but the pop-up gives us a pretty good idea of how things work. Similar to Apple’s NameDrop app, two phones can communicate without much extra work. You’ll probably need at least one piece of open content to share it. Previously, we found that It appears to be integrated into Android’s stock report, but the exact methodology remains unclear for now.
We also found evidence that Samsung users can at least share their contact cards (VCard) with other users. This popup is designed with Samsung devices in mind, explaining both the explanation and the custom design of the contact card popups, while we enabled it on the Pixel. It is likely to be available on other Android devices as well.
Also notable in Google’s pop-up window is the sub-troubleshooting step. While Apple’s implementation of phone-to-phone communication over NFC benefits from iPhones having a standard location for NFC hardware, Android phones tend to keep it in a number of places. Some phones have it towards the top, like Samsung’s Galaxy S26 series, while others have it towards the middle of the back of the phone. Anyone who’s tried to accept a physical card payment through apps like Square on an Android phone knows this well, though it’s usually not an issue with in-store payments. Still, it’s good to include this quick troubleshooting step by Google.
as it is everything manually activated early, there is no guarantee or any indication that this will roll out in the exact state we see today when can come out.
Dylan contributed to this article.
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