Nearby Sharing will soon send Wi-Fi passwords to Chromebooks

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(Pocket-lint) – Nearby Share, Google’s own version of Apple’s AirDrop technology, will soon offer an easy way to send a Wi-Fi password from an Android 12 device to a Chromebook laptop.

Google has been steadily adding features to the nearby sharing in recent years, so that it can better compete with AirDrop . Nearby Sharing can share apps, files, and more from one of your devices to another or a nearby friend. With Android 12, the feature has been updated to share a Wi-Fi network from one Android device to another Android device. Now, as Chrome Story first reports, Google has started extending this capability to Chromebooks, allowing ChromeOS users to receive a Wi-Fi network connection from an Android 12 device.

Sending a Wi-Fi network via Nearby Share relays all the information needed to get a Chromebook online quickly, including the network name, security type, and password. The two devices – the Android 12 device and the Chromebook – just need to be within Bluetooth range of each other.

Don’t expect Wi-Fi Sharing to arrive for Chromebooks before Chrome OS 100 or 101 – or March 2022 and April 2022, respectively – at the very least.

Like most experimental features in Google Chrome or Chromebooks, this Wi-Fi sharing option will start hidden behind a flag in chrome://flags.

Written by Maggie Tillman.