Google's 'Nearby' May Also Be Dubbed 'Copresence'

Earlier this year, we relayed to you info about a service dubbed "Nearby", which is believed to be Google's way of having otherwise disparate devices in communication with one another. It seems that service might be nearing our devices, though it's not entirely clear how Google plans to occupy this space just yet. With several references to a service called Co-presence — which may be the back-end functionality for Nearby — this interconnectivity we once discussed might be bigger than originally thought.

A tipster sent in a few droplets of info to tech blog TechAeris, noting they found reference to something called "Copresence" in the new Google Play Services APK. This tipster says there is an explainer for how the service works, a set-up process for users, and XML files explaining the layout and setup.

This program seems to go beyond the mobile-centric efforts at Google, too. A link to a Chrome API mentioning a "chrome.copresence" service suggests this scheme will reach to the desktop as well. Not terribly surprising, as Google's Chromebooks are a popular travel companion for so many.

Chrome's involvement also means this could go cross-platform.

We're still not sure what "Copresence" or "Nearby" is, but at first glance, it looks to be both sublime and concerning. If the service is meant as some kind of cross-platform, AirDrop-like file sharing service, yes please. If the goal is to have an interconnected world where your device is in constant communication with everything around it — no thanks.

The pictures above seem to suggest it's a type of device-to-device communication platform for files and information, and that's just fine by us. If that's the case, it really would be like AirDrop, only better. We'll just have to wait and see what, if anything, comes of it.

Source: TechAeris