How to improve Android Beam discoverability [closed]

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The presenters in the Google I/O session about Android Beam made some comments about "breaking Beam by adding things to it." They used an example of Beam being added to the Share menu, which is bad because Beam should be "magical" and "simple."

The problem that I have is that with no UI, Beam has a big discoverability problem. The average user will never use it if they don't know it is possible.

What are the best practices to let the user know that she can tap to share?

Answer 1

I'm creating a chat app where users can add others by NFC (and other ways). There is an activity where the users can see how to connect to others. In there there is also a piece about NFC. I guess when my users know by then that this is possible they will use it. Still... not all the phones have NFC yet, so users have to ask others: "Oh, umh, you have NFC?" Which they probably won't do to people that they just met or if the user isn't a geek.

I guess the best way to let users know they can use NFC to share stuff is by implementing it in all apps out there so it becomes default that it is there. Untill then, you should just tell your user it's possible like I did, with some text, symbol or animation.