[Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] Android phone to windows file sharing

Sat May 27 12:57:46 PDT 2023

 Pixel and iPhone are nowhere near low-end smartphones. The dividing point between high-end and low-end smartphones is about $400.00 new and $300.00 used or older models. Very old, soon to be obsolete models may be as low as $200.00 or less. But they won't last long and will never again get system updates. 
I use the Motorola g stylus series. And even that is not low-end. 
The vast majority of smartphones in the US are not high-end models. And nearly all do not have NFC or Apple's version. Almost all low-end smartphones are Android phones without NFC. Including the Moto g-series up to the Moto g 5G subseries which is expensive again. 
Since I'm in the market for a budget smartphone now, I have done some research into this. (Don't you just hate when the charging port goes bad on an otherwise working phone? Yes, I'll get it fixed, but I'll need backup while the repair is done.) 
-- Bob Primak 

    On Saturday, May 27, 2023 at 07:31:34 AM EDT, Rich Moffitt <rich at richmoffitt.org> wrote:  

 On the topic of NFC, though it's irrelevant to Nearby Share: there are several cheap phones that have NFC now, in fact I would say it's in the majority of new smartphones at this point, given that NFC components are commoditized and the software stack is mature and well standardized by now. Low end smartphone models like the Google Pixel a series, Samsung Galaxy A series, and the Apple iPhone SE have had NFC for several years. A used iPhone SE can be found for under $250 ( https://swappa.com/buy/apple-iphone-se-3rd-gen-2022 ) and Android phones for even less.
Side note: "dumb phones" are experiencing a bit of a revival. ( https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60763168 ) A possible side effect is lowering smartphone prices, at least for a little while.
For a little about how AirDrop and Nearby Share work, the diagram from the paper "A Billion Open Interfaces for Eve and Mallory: MitM, DoS, and Tracking Attacks on iOS and macOS Through Apple Wireless Direct Link" ( https://www.usenix.org/system/files/sec19-stute.pdf ) may be helpful.

The technologies in play are Bluetooth and peer-to-peer wifi. Bluetooth for discovery, and wifi for session establishment and high speed transfer. Peer-to-peer Bluetooth sharing has been around for decades and is really slow, so this is effectively a replacement using wifi. Apple had some interesting vulnerabilities arise ( https://www.wired.com/story/zero-click-ios-attack-project-zero/ ) shortly after release. Similarly, Microsoft had to work out some implementation bugs in Nearby Sharing (not to be confused with Android Nearby Share) that introduced a rather serious remotely exploitable vulnerability ( https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-40464 ) a couple years ago. Lastly we have Google's Nearby Share, which Drew mentioned, and it is the newest protocol and happens to be incompatible with the other two. Interoperability is clearly a mess. The concept is pretty well accepted now, but the implementation standards remind me of this XKCD cartoon:

-Rich

On Fri, May 26, 2023 at 11:56 PM Drew King <dking65 at kingconsulting.us> wrote:

Bob,

To my knowledge, NFC Is a cell phone thing not a Windows thing therefore is not a factor in this technology.

NFC is always DISABLED on my cell. This software does not use 5G or nfc. You just need to be on the same wifi network. Bluetooth might work also, but I'm not certain of that. 

Yes, Apple has had this feature for quite some time To go from I O S to I O S and perhaps MacOS.

Android phones no matter what kinds you have always had the ability to do nearby sharing to other Android phones, this software adds the capability to do that between Android and windows.

There is another program in the Google play app store that can transfer files from an Android phone to a Windows computer using the windows nearby sharing technology without needing to install any software on windows. Because you're not installing anything on windows it only works in one direction from your Android device to Windows. the hyperlink to the app in the Google play app store is listed below.. 

 On 5/26/2023 11:46 PM, Robert Primak wrote:

  Be aware, NFC (Android) only exists in a few, mostly 5G Cellular capable, smartphones right now. None of these phones is currently priced under the high-$400.00 range. For me, that's a lot of money to pay just to share files with nearby devices and make contactless payments. Just making these payments signals people that your phone is worth stealing.  
  Apple (iOS) has had their version of Nearby Sharing for a lot longer than the Android phones. But just showing that you have an iPhone capable of contactless payments sends the same signal that the phone is worth stealing.  
  Just my opinions. 
  -- Bob Primak 
      On Friday, May 26, 2023 at 11:10:39 PM EDT, Drew King <dking65 at kingconsulting.us> wrote:  

All,

I will demo this at the June Windows 11 meeting.

This software is still in beta and I have it installed on two machines and so far it works flawlessly. It's written by Google.

It lets you use the Android nearby share feature that normally only nearby shares with other Android phones with Windows computers also.

If you select and long press text or a hyperlink or a file, android pops up a window and there is an icon that symbolizes sharing that is a three-way star looking thing and then nearby share will be one of the options. When probably installed, your Windows computer will show up as one of the devices that you can send the file or hyperlink to. 

You can send text that you select on your Android app, and you can also send hyperlinks in addition to files.

https://android.com/better-together/nearby-share-app/

There is also a separate Android software program in the Google Play App Store that lets you do the same thing but only in one direction . Developer is working on two way. The big difference with this software program is you don't need to install or modify windows in any way whatsoever. The application on Android can send files to windows that have nearby share enabled. Nearby share on windows must be enabled for this to work.

Nearby Sharing Windows 10 / 11

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.shortdev.nearby_sharing_windows

 -- 
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