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Share nearby is in beta. While it is in beta, you share from Personal Zas only. Anyone can receive, from Personal Zas or from an organization.
Share nearby hands one item to a person next to you. You do not need their email, and they do not need to be in one of your channels.

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Two ways to connect

Both people must be signed in with an account. An anonymous session cannot share nearby or receive nearby.

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Share by QR code

  1. In Personal Zas, open the item’s menu and choose Share nearby.
  2. Zas shows a code. It works for 5 minutes. New code gives you a fresh one.
  3. The other person scans the code with their camera. A page opens on zas.red, or in the Zas app if they have it. They sign in if they need to.
  4. They choose Receive.
  5. You see their name and photo. Choose Allow to send the item, or Deny.
You always see who asks before anything is sent. If someone else scans your code, deny them and the code stays open.

Tomás shows a code. Ana scans it and chooses Receive. Tomás allows it, and the item arrives. The names and the code are examples.

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Share by touch

  1. The other person opens Receive nearby in the Zas app.
  2. In Personal Zas, open the item’s menu and choose Share nearby, then hold your phone near theirs.
  3. You see their name and photo. Confirm to send the offer.
  4. They see your name and a preview of the item, and choose Accept or Decline.
The offer waits 2 minutes for an answer.

Ana is ready to receive. Tomás holds the two phones close and confirms. Ana accepts, and both phones show the check at the same time. The names are examples.

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Where the item goes

The item arrives in a channel for the two of you. It is always in Personal Zas, for both people, even if the receiver was in an organization when they received it. Before receiving, the receiver chooses Keep this connection:
  • On (the default): you keep a channel for the two of you, to send more later.
  • Off: the channel is deleted when its last item expires. It takes no new items.
Two people have at most one nearby channel. The next time you share nearby with the same person, the item goes into that channel. A nearby channel is for two people only. Nobody can be invited or removed, and it has no name: each person sees the other’s name. Either person can delete it, and it goes for both. Items in it expire like every other item in Zas.

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Privacy

  • The key never reaches the server. With a QR code, the key is in the part of the link after the #, which browsers never send. With touch, your phone encrypts the key to the receiver’s own key.
  • Your phone checks the other phone. With touch, your phone reads a fingerprint of the receiver’s key over Bluetooth and compares it with the key the server gives. If they do not match, nothing is sent.
  • The preview is sealed. The name and size the receiver sees before accepting are encrypted with the channel key. The server stores them without reading them. A note marked secret shows only its title.

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Organizations

While Share nearby is in beta:
  • Sharing is only in Personal Zas. In an organization workspace, the item menu has no Share nearby, so an organization’s items never travel this way.
  • Receiving works in any workspace. If you receive while in an organization, the sender sees your organization’s name, and your organization’s rules for receiving apply. The item still arrives in Personal Zas.

Zas for Enterprise

Roles, guests and organization permissions.

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Sounds

Share nearby plays a short sound when someone asks for an item, receives it or turns it down, and the phone vibrates. Share nearby sounds in settings turns the sounds off. Vibration stays on.