Video shows how Google’s version of NameDrop for Android will work

Back in November we first heard that Google was working on creating something very similar to Apple’s NameDrop, but for Android devices. NameDrop was launched in 2023 and lets you share files with another iPhone owner by simply bringing your iPhones close together. NameDrop also supports sharing contact info.

And Google seems to be focused on that contact sharing bit in its implementation, at least initially. The video embedded below shows how Google’s version of NameDrop for Android will actually work in practice, take a look.

It’s still unclear what Google will choose to call this feature. During development, it’s being referred to as Gesture Exchange as well as Contact Exchange, and one of those could end up being the actual commercial name for the service, but hopefully Google’s marketing teams can think of something more catchy.

Either way, the feature is still in active development and not ready yet, as evidenced by the fact that while the animation shown in the video above works, actual contact exchange still isn’t functional. So we would assume this will be launching at some point in 2026.

When it does, you may need to do a bit of a dance aligning the two Android devices’ NFC antennas, since they are used for the initial handshake. While iPhones have consistently placed those antennas at the top, things vary quite a bit more with Android smartphones.

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