- Tap to Share is an in-development Android alternative to Apple’s NameDrop
- We’ve heard about it before, but now the interface has been leaked
- It looks far along, so perhaps it will launch with Android 17
Android already has its own alternative to AirDrop in Quick Share, but it lacks the NameDrop component of AirDrop — that being the feature that allows two iPhones to be bumped together to share contact information. Soon, though, a version of NameDrop is coming to Quick Share, and it’s called Tap to Share.
This isn’t the first we’re hearing of Tap to Share, but thanks to Android Authority, we’ve now had our best look yet at the upcoming feature, as the site has managed to activate the Tap to Share UI by digging around in Google Play Services v26.15.3.
The feature hasn’t launched yet, so it’s possible the interface or approach will change, but you can see that, in its current form, it requires two phones to have the top of their screens overlapped, making it slightly different from Apple’s bump-to-share approach.
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An NFC issue
Android Authority guesses that this is to account for the varied NFC chip placement on Android phones, with an overlap making it more likely that both phones’ NFC chips will be in range for the transfer.
Once overlapped, you keep the phones together until the screen glows, at which point your contact information will be exchanged — though you can also apparently use Tap to Share to transfer photos, videos, and other files.
It remains unclear when Tap to Share will actually launch, but the fact that Android Authority was able to access the interface suggests it’s well on the way to being finished, so perhaps we’ll see it as part of Android 17 in mid-2026.
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