NearDrop Plus is a fork of NearDrop created by GitHub user grishka. The application allows you to share files from your Android phone to your Mac devices.

XRayAdamo/NearDrop: An unofficial Google Nearby Share app for macOS (Advanced version) (github.com)

NearDrop Plus is a partial implementation of Google’s Nearby Share for macOS

Protocol documentation is available separately.

The app lives in your menu bar and saves files to your downloads folder. It’s that simple, really.

Difference between original NearDrop and my implementation

• Rename Your Computer: Give your computer a recognizable name for easier identification on your network.
• Customize Notifications: Choose alert dialogs instead of macOS notifications for incoming file requests.
• Seamless Startup: Set the program to launch automatically when you log in, ensuring you never miss a transfer.
• Effortless Downloads: Automatically accept and download incoming files directly to your Downloads folder.
• Enhanced Security: Only safe files like images and plain text documents will be opened automatically, protecting your system from potential threats.
• Text and URL Handling: Receive both text and URLs. They’ll open in separate windows, allowing you to copy, open the URL in your browser, or save the text as a file.

Limitations

• Receive only. For now. I haven’t yet figured out how to make Android turn on the MDNS service and/or show the “a device nearby is sharing” notification.
• Wi-Fi LAN only. Your Android device and your Mac need to be on the same network for this app to work. Google’s implementation supports multiple mediums, including Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth, some kind of 5G peer-to-peer connection, and even a WebRTC-based protocol that goes over the internet through Google servers. Wi-Fi direct isn’t supported on macOS (Apple has their own, incompatible, AWDL thing, used in AirDrop). Bluetooth needs further reverse engineering.
• Visible to everyone on your network at all times while the app is running. Limited visibility (contacts etc) requires talking to Google servers, and becoming temporarily visible requires listening for whatever triggers the “device nearby is sharing” notification.

Installation

Download .zip file from releases page. Extract it and copy NearDropPlus.app to Applications folder.