What is Android Beam?

[Droidguy2791]

So i'm VERY new to Android software (i'm used to apple's ios) but i just got a Galaxy s3 and it really is amazing. But the problem is that i don't know what a lot of these things are. Like NFC, Android Beam, S Beam, Wi-Fi Direct mostly. I've seen them in the settings but I don't know what they are. Is Android Beam/S beam the same thing? How about NFC? and what's Wi-Fi direct? Thank you!

 

[meyerweb#CB]

These should help with Android Beam and NFC: android beam | Android Central

NFC: What is NFC? [Android A to Z] | Android Central

S Beam: Hands-on with 'S Beam' on the Samsung Galaxy S III | Android Central (It's similar to Andoid Beam, but because it uses WiFi it's much faster.)

WiFi Direct: Wi-Fi Direct - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[AlgarY]

Android Beam allows you to send data/information between 2 devices by tapping them together.

Think of it like Bluetooth, except you don't have to go through the trouble of pairing the devices to establish a connection. All you need to do is physically connect them (by tapping).

From what I read, S Beam is Samsung's interface that is like an extension of Android Beam. It allows the normal NFC data transfer to be even faster for large amounts of data by incorporating WiFi Direct.