Fortunately, as spotted by Chrome Story, Google is poised to add a new Chromebook feature to Nearby Share called “Self Share.” This convenient perk enables seamless sharing between Chromebook users’ own devices.
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New Chromebook feature spotted: Self Share
Nearby Share, introduced in 2020, sticks out its proverbial antenna to “sense” close-range devices, allowing users to send images, documents and other files to nearby friends, co-workers and more. However, Self Share builds upon Nearby Share. It makes it easier for Chromebook users to transfer files to their own devices — as long as they’re within reach and signed into their Google account. As of this writing, Self Share is launching as a Chrome OS Canary developer flag. In other words, Self Share hasn’t yet rolled out to the general public and it will be some time before it’s widely available. According to Chrome Story, when Self Share hits the mass market, Chromebook users will see a “Send to Your Devices” option under the Nearby Share menu. As mentioned, this feature is set to arrive on Chrome OS, but there’s a chance that Google will expand the new self-share function to other devices in the future. After all, the search-engine announced at CES 2022 that Nearby Share is coming to Windows PCs later this year, so there’s a good chance that Self Share will get a similar roadmap.