- Tap to Share is an Android alternative in development to Apple’s NameDrop
- We’ve heard about it before, but now the interface has been leaked
- It seems far-fetched, so maybe 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’s the feature that allows two iPhones to be bumped together to share contact information. However, there will soon be a version of NameDrop for Quick Share, and it will be called Tap to Share.
This isn’t the first we’re hearing about Tap to Share, but thanks to Android Authority we’ve now got our best look at the upcoming feature, as the site has managed to enable 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 tops of their screens overlapped, making it slightly different from Apple’s bump-to-share approach.
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An NFC problem
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 they’re overlapped, you’ll hold the phones together until the screen lights up, at which point your contact information will be exchanged — though you can apparently also use Tap to Share to transfer photos, videos, and other files.
It’s still unclear when Tap to Share will actually launch, but the fact that Android Authority was able to access the interface suggests that it’s well on its way to completion, so perhaps we’ll see it as part of Android 17 in mid-2026.
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