Normal view

Before yesterdayMain stream

First look at Tap to Share: Android’s NameDrop rival is designed with Samsung in mind

By:Yash
13 April 2026 at 10:20

Google is resurrecting the ghost of Android Beam and calling it Tap to Share, and what’s surfaced inside recent app updates suggests Samsung users are going to get the best seat at the table.

Now, Google is rebuilding Android Beam, and the latest code updates have let slip a detailed pop-up explaining exactly how Tap to Share works.

Unlock your phone, overlap the tops of both devices with screens facing up, and keep them together until they glow. That glow animation is apparently real, a visual cue triggering when the NFC handshake completes.

The feature is aiming wide: contact info, photos, videos, links, and location. Buried in the code is something more specific: Samsung users will be able to share their contact card, a VCard, directly to another device this way.

The pop-up itself, spotted on a Pixel, is visually designed around Samsung hardware.

Android Tap to Share

It tells you where Google’s head is at. Samsung ships more Android devices than anyone else on the planet, and if Google wants Tap to Share to matter, Samsung owners are the audience that has to adopt it.

Apple’s NameDrop works because iPhones are standardized. Every single one has NFC in the same spot. Meanwhile, it’s a totally different case in the world of Android as some carry NFC toward the top, others bury it toward the middle of the back.

In Google’s latest updates, a new pop-up has appeared that showcases “how tap to share works.” The pop-up explains, via 9to5Google:

  • Instantly share contact info, photos, videos, links, location, and more
  • Unlock your phone.
  • Overlap the top of both phones with their screens facing up. You should be able to see both screens
  • Keep phones together until they glow.
  • Not working? Try holding both phones back to back.

It might ship differently than what we’re seeing. Features like this get modified, delayed, and sometimes shelved entirely between internal testing and public release.

The post First look at Tap to Share: Android’s NameDrop rival is designed with Samsung in mind appeared first on Sammy Fans.

❌
❌