The Google Play Store has a Nearby Share-powered method for sending apps on your device to others, but this is now going away…
Hey look, Google killed something that could be great rather than spending time making it work. How novel…
Sounds like they want everyone to download directly from the Play store, and not in a way they can’t control?
Same trend as the official OS only apps, overzealous ‘Play Protect’, etc.
You can still use Files by Google to share Android applications in a similar manner. Under Categories, go to “Apps” and then the overflow menu for what you want to “Share.”
A lot of other apps still support it, including FOSS ones, unless the play app did something extra?
For example
- SD Maid SE:
App Control>Export App - Kvaesitso: long tap > 3 dot menu >
Share app - F-Droid for all of their apps
This feels like preperation for enforcing backdoored chat apps to me. The EU has been pushing for this for years now and eventually it will happen. When the time comes it will most likely come with laws that force google to make sideloading impossible to prevent people from using backdoor free apps.
All while other parts of the EU are actively supporting sideloading and FOSS. Its such a clown world we live in.
- SD Maid SE:
This. The share is an easy way to get the package id without installing a package manager; just grab the last parameter.
The package name is visible in App info, no need to install anything - just long press the app icon, pick App info and scroll down to version
Thank-you. That’s fairly easy.
LocalSend is available on F-Droid as a potential replacement.
Not sure if it would be a complete drop-in replacement, but it’s there.
Local send does everything i need
Naturally it’s a feature I actually use.
What do you use it for, when you’re outside network range?
I’ve never been in a situation where it felt necessary.
Some apps show as incompatible with my tablet (Lenovo Y700 Gen 2) even though they work fine. I can often share those from my phone directly in the Play Store.
The article says I could use Files going forward, but it doesn’t work - Quick Share is missing entirely on the tablet and I haven’t found a way to enable/install it
I see. There’s stuff such as apkmirror, but an official way to do it is better.
While I haven’t tested these extensively, you could give them a try (both are foss):
- SD Maid SE: App Control > Export App
- Kvaesitso: long tap > 3 dot menu > Share app
First one is designed for managing / cleaning up app storage. Second one is a launcher, so it might be a bit janky if all you need to do is transfer an app
FDroid still has it
That’s weird - only a few weeks ago, there were rumors that Quick Share was going to be extended to also support iOS.
Quick share isn’t going away, the functionality to share apps in Google Play using quick share is
Thanks for the clarification!
No problem! Google’s naming gets confusing
