At the beginning of the year we discovered that WhatsApp was working on a way to send files between nearby mobile phones called ‘Nearby Contacts’. Since then we have followed the progress of the app in different beta versions and finally We were able to test this privatelyis currently functional.

WhatsApp is preparing with a slightly worrying move An alternative to AirDrop or Quick Share To send files from one nearby mobile phone to another without revealing your phone number and with end-to-end encryption. But it makes more sense than it seems at first glance.

WhatsApp wants to become AirDrop

Both Android and iOS have their own systems. Send files between nearby devicesQuick Share and AirDrop respectively. However, they decided to create their own way of doing the same thing in WhatsApp without depending on these two systems.

WhatsApp AirDrop will be called nearbyand we were able to test it privately, which was not easy because we needed two rooted terminals for this, because as far as we know it is not active for anyone yet. And it works.

Nearby Contacts is practically the same as Quick Share, but Today only allows us to send photos and not any other file type. When sending, we will see nearby devices with the ‘Nearby contacts’ option also turned on, in which case we can start sending files.

Choose a recipient, a photo, and wait: that’s the process.

The funny thing is We don’t need to have this person in our contacts or open a chat To send files. We don’t necessarily even need to use the same operating system, which will be one of the biggest limitations when we want to send something via AirDrop or Quick Share. Our phone number is not disclosed when sending photos. People nearby.

Sending a photo is as easy as tapping a recipient and selecting the photo (or photos, since you can choose several). shipping is going with PIN code The four-digit number that appears on both cell phones represents a way to verify that what we’re receiving is actually what the other person sent and not someone in the vicinity who started sending at the same time.

When accepting a shipment we can see a PIN code to confirm its origin

If someone sends us something, we may choose to accept or not accept the shipmentbut before we do that we will see how many files they send us and how much space they take up, which is interesting.

Mobile direct shipping gives you the power to: Send WhatsApp files to WhatsApp regardless of operating system and follows the same trend as direct chat transfer, which eliminates intermediaries like Google Drive or iCloud.

Xataka on Android | WhatsApp is becoming the super app Elon Musk wants and we didn’t even know it