Files by Google has been a staple in stock Android, and one of the best file manager apps on ROMs developed by other smartphone brands. It doesn’t exactly lead the way with new feature additions, but certainly benefits from deep integration with the Android OS when implementing stuff like Nearby Share support. Now the Files app can share entire folders from your Android device via Nearby Share without destroying the folder structure.
Nearby Share is a maturing Android feature, with a dedicated tab for it in the Files app, which could get a visual overhaul, and support recently extended to Windows machines too. Now, well-known Android feature spotter Mishaal Rahman has noticed the Files app allows you to share entire folders via Nearby Share.
Using Nearby Share from the Files app is straightforward: long press the folder you want to send, and then tap the Nearby Share icon in the upper right corner. You can initiate the transfer from any Android device, and receive the folder on any other Android device, Chromebook, or Windows PC.
Rahman notes that folder sharing isn’t necessarily a new feature for Nearby Share or the Files app, because Google News Telegram channel manager Nail Sadykov says the feature was possibly spotted as early as May this year. It’s also worth mentioning that this behavior seems to be limited to Google’s Files app, as attempts to send a folder through Nearby Share in Samsung’s built-in file manager did not yield results.
If you find yourself unable to send folders as described above, you can always compress them into a single zipped file, use Nearby Share for the transfer, the extract the zipped folder on the other device. However, the ability to share folders directly would eliminate workarounds like this, making Nearby Share more versatile and simple to use. The recent changes to Nearby Share suggest Google is interested in expanding the capabilities, and support for folder sharing should only expand in the coming days.
