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Nearby Connections 2.0: offline high bandwidth peer to peer device communication
- pat2man 9y agoThis is one of those features that really needs cross platform support. If Apple and Google could just work together and let MultipeerConnectivity and Nearby Connections work together maybe developers would actually develop interesting applications for peer to peer.
- rektide 9y agoIt's presumably built around WiFi Aware, which is cross platform, but the WiFi "Alliance" (owners) won't tell you what it is or how it works or how you can make use of it. So this is what we get. 100% agreed though. IMO is poison and a major regression from where things stood- barely working wifi p2p- since it doesn't make any interoperability affordances/offerings.
- tjohns 9y agoWiFi Aware is an OS-level feature that's being added in the upcoming Android O release. It also requires new hardware support, which means most phones don't support it yet. Nearby isn't using WiFi Aware. We want it to work on all existing Android devices. Internally, it's using a mix of WiFi, WiFi Direct, Bluetooth LE & Classic Bluetooth. Getting proximity-based P2P messaging to work correctly across all devices is complicated. With Nearby Connections, we're trying to provide an abstraction layer that makes it easy.
- pmontra 9y agoSeconded. What could be their interest in not making this technology interoperable? I'd there are already some killer applications for only one platform it could be user lock in. Otherwise it's to keep developers from using it, which is strange.
- joosters 9y agoDefinitely! It's amazing that two people can have smartphones with wifi, bluetooth and other comms links yet there isn't a standard, platform agnostic way to send a file to another phone. So now we have Nearby Communications for Android and AirDrop for iOS and we still can't send stuff to friends in the same room, without sending the data through a remote third party service. The only standard supported mechanism for sharing without an app is via email!
- mataug 9y agoThis is basically Air Drop with extra features and an open API . As @pat2man mentions, It would've been great if Apple and Google made this an open standard instead of having their own proprietary solutions.
- reaperducer 9y agoIt's amazing how much things have changed since AirDrop. In the last two offices in which I've worked (both creative), AirDrop was indispensable. Even in a small team of 20 or so people, it was used hundreds of times a day. The new Apple era has strayed considerably from "it just works," except for AirDrop, which has been nothing but a pleasure to work with.
- ekwogefee 9y agoWhat about users with non-Apple devices? Was this hardly an issue ?
- pmontra 9y agoI don't have any Apple hardware so I don't know what AirDrop is. I should google it but my point should be already easy to see. If it's not interoperable it can't become as useful as it could be. Compare it with HTTP, SMTP, FTP etc which are open standards with multiple interoperable implementations.
- ksec 9y agoCan you describe the workflow of using AirDrop? Because for some reason AirDrop never really clicked for me. It is far too many layers or options before i get it across devices. And I assume you are all using Mac? Because In Cooperate World it is pretty much Windows Only.
- reaperducer 9y agoIn Corporate World of the 1990's it was pretty much Windows Only. Much of the corporate world has moved on, largely spurred by managers adopting iPhones. The last two companies I worked for — a creative agency with ~50 people, and a larger more anonymous company with ~2,000 employees in 10 states — both were 100% Mac. The first one, because that's how creative agencies have always been. The second for security. The IT dept's policy was no Microsoft hardware or software allowed other than Office: Mac. As for the workflow, it's like this: - See file on desktop. - Right-click and select "Airdrop" - Choose destination computer - Notification appears on target computer stating that someone wants to send a file - Destination user clicks "Accept" - File transmits super-duper fast in the background and lands in the destination computer's download folder Or if you're sending a file to yourself (both devices have the same iCloud/.mac/.me ID) skip everything after the third step.
- crudbug 9y agoAnother Google specific API. Please use open standard based communication framework [0] for your "connected" things. [0] https://openconnectivity.org https://openconnectivity.org
- mxuribe 9y ago1. cross platform support and interactivity - at protocol level. 2. innovators build platforms and apps. 3. success and liberty for all! Seriously though, totally agree with a few commenters (pat2man, mataug), open standards will win the day; any day...including future days.
- jwfxpr 9y agoI am genuinely curious in wondering what proportion of the open standards in technology begin as innovative evolutions of existing standards with only limited support at introduction, like this is. Isn't this essentially one of the accepted pathways to open standards, build the system, invite collaborators, and see if it gains acceptance and traction?
- brndnmtthws 9y agoNo thank you. I hope there's a simple way to disable this.
- spydum 9y agoCan't wait for the peer to peer mobile malware!
- blacksmith_tb 9y agoNo need to wait, the recently announced Broadcom wifi vuln discussed here[1] can be used to spread to nearby devices (see the section titled "The First Wifi Worm" near the end). 1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14859602 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14859602
- jff 9y ago> the TV urging you to continue binging on your saved guilty-pleasures watchlist The shelves in the grocery store calling out to me because they know I like potato chips! Can't wait!
- TeMPOraL 9y agoI would love to go full Watch_Dogs on those shelves. They'll probably have those e-ink price tags that are now popular; it would be cool to make them display "IT'S A TRAP" instead.
- Animats 9y agoToday we're announcing the availability of this API across all Android devices running Google Play services 11.0 and up. Of course, Google had to lock up peer to peer communication by tying it to their online store. It's also unencrypted and unauthenticated, so you don't want to use this for home control.
- nickporter 9y agoIs it really unencrypted? The blog post says it's encrypted.
- tyingq 9y agoIt does have at least some concept of auth and encryption, though the auth is optional, and somewhat simplistic: https://developers.google.com/nearby/connections/android/manage-connections#authenticate_a_connection https://developers.google.com/nearby/connections/android/man...
- Animats 9y agoThe API spec says: "Note: The Nearby Connections API does not require the user to authenticate, which means that it can be used even when the user does not want to sign in or sign-in has failed." "Warning: Messages sent through the Nearby Connections API are not encrypted. Do not send sensitive data through this API."[1] [1] https://developers.google.com/games/services/cpp/nearby https://developers.google.com/games/services/cpp/nearby
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- nickporter 9y agoI think you're looking at either a different API, or an older version of it. The blog post links to this documentation page: https://developers.google.com/nearby/connections/overview https://developers.google.com/nearby/connections/overview
- natch 9y agoWe need a net neutrality version of this, not networks built for specific verticals like weather alerts.
- dsun179 9y agoI hate google for things like this. "Dont be evil" they said. But why do they hate freedom?
- matt_wulfeck 9y ago> Imagine walking into a hotel room and having the temperature set just right, your favorite sub-genre of progressive-math-rock playing in the background, and the TV urging you to continue binging on your saved guilty-pleasures watchlist. I really can't help but cringe. Please let that never be my future, where I broadcast out personal information to the entire room everywhere I go.
- samer66 9y agoIn 2014 there was MeshMe, an Ad-Hoc Mesh Networks it disappeared shortly afterwards. https://hacked.com/meshme-messaging-app/ https://hacked.com/meshme-messaging-app/
- samer66 9y agoIn 2014 there was MeshMe, an Ad-Hoc Mesh Networks it disappeared shortly afterwards. https://hacked.com/meshme-messaging-app/ https://hacked.com/meshme-messaging-app/
- Corrado 9y agoI can see this as a way to configure IoT devices more easily. For example, setting up a new printer is often a hassle; using a tiny, barely workable, touch screen and an inefficient menu system is no fun. Imagine you could just plug it in and your smartphone comes to life with a nice GUI. It could even pre-configure it for you. Another example is Amazon's Alexa devices. Currently, you have to push buttons and install a custom app on your phone and it can be very confusing. The classroom examples also ring true to real world experiences. My wife is a teacher and has used several different proprietary "voting" devices in the past to great effect. However, they all used different hardware/protocols and didn't integrate with their current environment at all. This year they are moving to Chromebooks and my hope is that Nearby Connections might provide an "open" foundation on which a new breed of apps can be built.
- exit 9y agohopefully this will accelerate development and adoption of ipfs based apps! https://ipfs.io/ https://ipfs.io/
- thadk 9y agoWherein Google realizes it needs AirDrop for its self driving cars too.