Quick Share is a

wireless Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information (''telecommunication'') between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided transm ...

peer-to-peer Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network, forming a peer-to-peer network of Node ...

data transfer utility for Android,

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

and

ChromeOS ChromeOS, sometimes styled as chromeOS and formerly styled as Chrome OS, is an operating system designed and developed by Google. It is derived from the open-source operating system and uses the Google Chrome web browser as its principal user ...

. Quick Share utilizes

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is li ...

and

Wi-Fi Direct Wi-Fi Direct is a Wi-Fi standard for wireless connections that allows two devices to establish a direct Wi-Fi connection without an intermediary wireless access point, Router (computing), router, or Internet connection. Wi-Fi Direct is single-hop ...

to send files to nearby devices, but it could also send to any other device anywhere using the Samsung Cloud, uploading the files to a web address. Originally developed by

Samsung Electronics Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (SEC; stylized as SΛMSUNG; ) is a South Korean multinational major appliance and consumer electronics corporation founded on 13 January 1969 and headquartered in Yeongtong District, Suwon, South Korea. It is curr ...

for its own devices,

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

subsequently collaborated with Samsung and merged its own Nearby Share into Quick Share in 2024, distributing Quick Share to non-

Galaxy A galaxy is a Physical system, system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar medium, interstellar gas, cosmic dust, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek ' (), literally 'milky', ...

Android devices through

Google Play Services Google Play Services is a proprietary software package produced by Google for installation on Android devices. It consists of background services and libraries for use by mobile apps running on the device. When it was introduced in 2012, it pr ...

History

Quick Share debuted along with the

Samsung Galaxy S20 The Samsung Galaxy S20 is a series of Android-based smartphones developed, manufactured, and marketed by Samsung Electronics as part of its Galaxy S series. They collectively serve as the successor to the Galaxy S10 series. The first three sma ...

and

One UI One UI is a user interface (UI) developed by Samsung Electronics for its smart devices, including Android (operating system), Android devices from at least late 2016 or early 2017 running Android Pie, Android 9 (Pie) and later. Succeeding Samsu ...

2.1, with rollout to other Galaxy smartphones and tablets later. Samsung claims the service was created to streamline the process of sending content, superseding a previous service named Link Sharing. Quick Share was launched for Windows-based

Samsung Galaxy Book Samsung Galaxy Book is a line of Microsoft Windows based Laptop, laptop computers produced by Samsung Electronics of South Korea. The Galaxy Book originated as a tablet computer with a 2-in-1 laptop, detachable keyboard; however in 2020 it had ev ...

notebooks in 2021, and since July 2023 is no longer limited to Samsung Windows PCs. In January 2024, it was announced that Google's Nearby Share would be merging with Samsung's Quick Share, adopting the name of the latter.

Usage

Users can send files to up to 8 nearby devices at a time, so long as they have the feature enabled and their screens are on. Quick Share can be toggled in the quick panel settings and the user can choose to receive content from anyone nearby, contacts only, your devices, or no one. Content transfer is made possible by choosing Quick Share, after which the sender chooses which nearby device(s) to send to. Quick Share is also capable of uploading files to Samsung Cloud and sharing via URL. The data uploaded to the Samsung Cloud can be downloaded by the user either by clicking the specified link or scanning the provided QR code. Samsung Cloud automatically deletes the uploaded files after a period of two days, and has a daily upload limit of 5

gigabytes The gigabyte () is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The prefix ''giga'' means 109 in the International System of Units (SI). Therefore, one gigabyte is one billion bytes. The unit symbol for the gigabyte is GB. This defin ...

. The Quick Share app on Windows enables other Quick Share-enabled devices to instantly share files with Windows devices.

Availability

Quick Share is available on

Android 6 Android Marshmallow ( codenamed Android M during development) is the sixth major version of the Android operating system developed by Google, being the successor to Android Lollipop. It was announced at Google I/O on May 28, 2015, and released ...

and later, ChromeOS 91 and later, and 64-bit versions of

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. The successor to Windows 8.1, it was Software release cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on July 2 ...

and later (either ARM or x86). On Windows, Quick Share must be installed manually, as opposed to its implementation on Android and ChromeOS, where it is a part of the operating system and does not need to be installed separately. Windows devices must have both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to be able to run Quick Share.

Windows Apps

There are two Windows apps available: one for the

Microsoft Store The Microsoft Store (formerly known as the Windows Store) is a digital distribution platform operated by Microsoft. It was created as an app store for Windows 8 as the primary means of distributing Universal Windows Platform apps. With ...

developed by Samsung, and one available via sideloading developed by Google. These apps are predicted to fully merge capabilities in Q3 of 2024. Currently, Samsung's version can only run using Intel Wi-Fi and Bluetooth drivers. In addition, Microsoft also offers a way to Nearby Share (unrelated to Quick Share, nor Google's Nearby Share) to Android devices natively through Windows' Phone Link functionality.

Private Share

Private Share was a derivative data transfer service which used

blockchain The blockchain is a distributed ledger with growing lists of Record (computer science), records (''blocks'') that are securely linked together via Cryptographic hash function, cryptographic hashes. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of th ...

encryption, designed for important personal or financial information. Sharing files is possible via the phone number associated with a phone's SIM card, or a user-chosen private number. A private number is exclusive to the Private Share app, and commences with # and includes 10 digits, like #0123456789. The sender is able to set an expiry date for the files, which get automatically deleted from the recipient's devices. There is a 200 megabyte upload limit for senders. Like Quick Share, Private Share is also preloaded on Samsung Galaxy devices. Since December 2023, Private Share has been integrated with Quick Share, and is no longer a separate service.

References