Google's Android Gesture Exchange Could be an Answer to Apple's NameDrop

Google is developing its own version of Apple's popular NameDrop feature for Android. According to new findings within the recent Google Play Services beta, the feature has a codename and appears to mimic the iOS functionality that allows users to share contact cards by bringing their phones close together.

Gesture Exchange might be coming soon to Android

The feature was first spotted by AssembleDebug, reported via Android Authority when sifting through the code of recent Google Play Services updates. An early beta v25.44.32 included strings for Gesture Exchange and ndef. The latter stands for NFC Data Exchange Format, confirming the feature is gesture-based and uses NFC.

However, in the latest beta v25.46.31, AssembleDebug was able to enable one of the feature's hidden activities, giving us a look at the user interface. The early screenshots show a UI that's functionally identical to Apple's NameDrop and it looks like Google is preparing its own seamless device-to-device sharing tool for Android.

One of the screens prompts the user to select what they want to share, with checkboxes for their photo, number and email address. Another feature is the Receive-only button, which allows users to accept someone's contact card without sharing their own.

Lastly, there's a second screen that shows the information of the contact you received, which can then be saved with a single tap. While the feature may use NFC to transfer smaller things like contacts, it's much more likely that it will use Wi-Fi or Bluetooth for larger files such as photos.

Now, because this feature is being built into Google Play Services, it's likely that Google will roll it out as a part of a future Android Feature Drop. This could allow it to reach a wide variety of Android phones at once. Besides, it's unlikely that the final retail name of the feature will be "Gesture Exchange" as it sounds too generic.

We don't have any information about the feature's availability as it's in very early stages. However, considering it takes Google at least a few months before a new feature starts showing up in Play Services beta, we expect Gesture Exchange to roll out in Q1 2026.