Google releases Android Samba Client

Recently, out of nowhere, the Tech giant Google released a Samba client for Android into the Play Store. The Android Samba Client is natively baked into android and rules out the need to root the device. The application allows the users to conveniently mount and access the files from the share back and over using the SMB protocol. The app provides a username and password feature. This allows the android user to access the protected Windows partitions besides the unprotected ones.

According to Google, the app is a “direct port of Samba client.” Also, Google states, that the app, “allows users to mount an SMB file share in their Downloads/Files app in Android.” For those unfamiliar with Samba, it is a software used to integrate Linux/Unix-based operating systems to interoperate with the Windows environment. Samba allows files transfer over a network between different operating systems.

The Samba client is an open-source software. You can view its code at GitHub. There is no doubt that the Android Samba Client allows you to easily read and write via local shared drives of the computer. But the app only supports SMBv1. The SMBv1 has been reported to have security problems and is also disabled on most NAS solutions. Thus, I personally think that this half-baked attempt needs some more work.  Additionally, unmounting the files in the application is a topic of concern too. For now, only uninstallation seems to be a solution to the concern. Furthermore, disabling SMBv1 in the Samba share causes failure in the connection of the Android Samba Client.

The application is a good initial release and however, expecting Google not to improvise on its problems seems to be a bit irrational. Nevertheless, you can download your Samba client here.

Join us below at the comment section to share your views on the Android Samba Client.

[quote]Also Read:
How to Unlock Android using Google Assistant
How to get Google Pixel icons[/quote]