The Resurrection of the Beam: Google Challenges AirDrop with Android 17’s “Tap to Share”

The report describes evidence that Google is building a "Tap to Share" feature for Android's Quick Share—discovered in Android 17 beta and Canary branches and tied to Google Play Services—that uses NFC for a low-latency handshake and then transfers data over Wi‑Fi Direct or UWB. The feature appears intended to provide a cross-brand, AirDrop-like experience across Android devices (Samsung, Pixel, Xiaomi, OPPO) rather than being a proprietary Samsung capability.