Apple rolled out NameDrop for the iPhone and Apple Watch with the launch of iOS 17, leaving many users uncertain about this new contact sharing feature. In fact, a large number sought out instructions for disabling NameDrop immediately after it became publicly available, with certain law enforcement agencies even putting out alerts about the option and advising users to deactivate it.
Although these alerts suggest that the feature might present more of a security threat than it actually does, as NameDrop still necessitates user authentication to share information with another device, that has not prevented it from emerging as one of the more overlooked contact sharing tools integrated into the operating system. Now, it seems that Google may be preparing to introduce something similar.
According to a recent APK teardown by Android Authority, Google initially embedded code for a NameDrop-like capability in version 25.44.32 beta of Google Play Services. The blog asserts that it has unearthed snippets of code associated with two functionalities referred to as Gesture Exchange and Contact Exchange. Now, with the rollout of Google Play Services version 25.46.31, the team behind that analysis was able to successfully activate one of the features linked to the new system.
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Similar to its iOS equivalent, Google’s Contact Exchange functionality seems to provide both a <strong
