Google has quietly updated Quick Share for Windows, the official tool for connecting Android phones to Windows PCs. It now has easier file transfers and other improvements.

The update lets owners transfer files between their Android phone and Windows PC at decent speeds without needing both devices to be connected to the same Wi-Fi network. The update lets you use Quick Share through a Wi-Fi connection even when the PC is not connected to its main network. Instead, users can make a hotspot using their phone and then go into their PC and connect to their hotspot. By doing this, anyone should get a transfer speed comparable to speeds achieved using a direct Wi-Fi connection. These speeds range from 30 MB/s to 110 MB/s, depending on the devices and environment. This isn’t a solution when far from home, but it’s a great one when a users needs a quick transfer over.

Quick Share is the new version of Nearby Share, but Google renamed the feature and merged it with the Samsung feature of the same name. It became the unified way to share files between phones, tablets, and even Chromebooks and Windows PCs, in much the same way as AirDrop on Apple devices. You can get the app for QuickShare from its Microsoft Store page.

Before the update, users needed to be connected to the same Wi-Fi network. This was pretty hard to do outside the home or Wi-Fi network. A common solution was to connect the PC to a public Wi-Fi network when the user was outside their home or Wi-Fi network. This is not a safe thing to do, and would put users at risk. Alternatively, there was always Bluetooth transfer, but that was really slow. This could go as low as 60 KB/s, which is too slow to use. E-mailing the files to yourself or uploading them to a cloud to download on a PC later is typically faster than that speed.

It’s unclear why Google wouldn’t release a big announcement with this update, as it makes things much easier for users. However, this may be part of a bigger update that Google has not yet shared.

Source: Android Authority