Quite a few Android phones now feature NFC, or Near Field Communications. That technology is employed as a feature called Android Beam. It’s über handy. Well, for most things it’s über handy.

Android Beam is a feature that lets you share items with other Android users in your immediate vicinity. Bring up anything that you can share on the screen, such as a web page, contact, or photo, then touch the two devices. Bloop! You can instantly transfer the information.

Okay: File transfers aren’t instant, but you get the idea. For most items, however, Android Beams is the perfect — and wireless — solution.

First, ensure that you’ve activated Android Beam for your mobile device. Not every Android phone or tablet has that feature, but many of the newer models do. To turn it on, follow these steps:

1. Start the Settings app.
2. Choose the More command in the Wireless & Networks area.
3. Ensure that the NFC item is on, either a check mark appears or the button is slid to the On position as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. NFC has been activated.

NFC stands for Near Field Communications. It’s the technology behind Android Beam, which is the brand name.

Once activated, you swap information by touching two Android devices, usually back-to-back. That’s where the NFC hardware is located on many phones and tablets. Sharing works like this:

1. Visit a web page, view a contact or a map, select a tune, or look at a photo. Basically you can be viewing anything that otherwise features a Share icon or menu command. That’s the type of information you can share using Android Beam.
2. Touch your Android gizmo to the other Android gizmo.
3. When you see the Touch to Share prompt appear on the screen, touch the screen. The information you’re viewing is sent to the other device.

Figure 2. Touch the screen to send this web page to the other device.

The transfer may not be immediate, especially for a photograph. In that case, hold the devices together until receipt of the information is acknowledged on your device: It works like any other download, although you see an Incoming Beam notification and not a Downloading notification.

For transferring a web page, as shown in Figure 2, the web page immediately appears on the other device, in the web browser app. Ditto for many other types of transfer.

I hope more people use Android Beam in the future, making it more popular. It’s so easy to use and so handy, but until more people know about NFC and appreciate how it can be used, Android Beam will remain one of the more obscure mobile device features.