It’s always great news when Google updates any of its services. When a new update for Drive was finally released a lot of people were pretty pumped for it. We are glad to say that the company managed to deliver on every account. The new Google Drive is still the best file-storage app for Android and now is way easier to handle it using your smart device with it. The first thing you will notice is how much Drive looks like all the other G suite apps. Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Sites, and Drive now all look pretty much the same. The only thing that changes in all of them is the interface.
New Options, New Positioning
The main change is the brand new Home tab as well as the new navigation bar located at the bottom of the screen. These two changes bring the mobile app more in line with the Drive website. The bottom navigation bar is in place to offer users’ access to their most frequently accessed files on Drive with as few taps as possible. All users are now able to change their data at their convenience, depending on their location. You can choose the ones on the homepage or those who have been marked and shared easier thanks to the bottom navigation bar. The change is meant to work alongside the machine-learning algorithms of Google to suggest the most accessed documents at all moments. The good news is that the search engine of the app works just as well for this.
New Tabs, Easier Access
The Home tab has been completely redesigned to offer firsthand access to files that are important to users. In this stance, the algorithms of the app will choose using data such as the last time the file was read or edited. It will also notice the number of times the data has been shared. You can also keep track of the number of times all files are accessed at any moment of the day. Team Drives has been revamped as a new tab placed next to “My Drives.” In here the files can be viewed on computers tabs as well, that way will have full access to all the local files backed up on their accounts.
Switching Accounts, Closing Thoughts
Google has also reformed the way users switch accounts. They have moved the option from the left menu to a single avatar placed on the top right corner of the screen, next to the search bar. This option is also available in the Team Drives page too which of course is pretty useful. The new location of the account-switching is meant to make it easier for users to switch between their personal and company profiles. You will also notice that the “actions” menu for files and folders have prioritized the most frequently used action on the account by placing those options at the top. The old toggle for marked files and offline data are now available as buttons.
The way we see it, most of these changes have been made to reflect how people work using their mobile devices. The drive is no longer a storage service. It feels like a collaboration tool for work in the same vein as pen drives used to be all the rage just a few years ago.