Google's Nearby API allows for proximity-based communication between devices

Google today introduced Nearby, a way for your mobile device to communicate with other devices based solely on your proximity. Using a combination of Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and inaudible sound with your device’s speaker and microphone, the use of the Nearby API will allow devices to be able to establish proximity and communicate cross-platform between both Android and iOS. Developers can easily this proximity API, called Nearby Messages, to integrate this functionality into their own applications.

Google has already built these features into a few of its own services such as Chromecast Guest Mode, Nearby Players in Google Play Games and Google Tone. The company has also shown off a few third party developers who have incorporated this new API into their apps. For example, Pocket Casts lets you view what nearby folks are listening to, Trello will let you share a board with someone who is close to you with the tap of a button, and edjing lets you publish your track list to people around you.

This new API will be available across all devices running Gingerbread or higher, and will be rolled out as part of Google Play Services version 7.8. If you’re interested, you can find more details by following the source link below.