Android & iPhone Users Benefit From Revamped Google Drive Interface

The Google Drive mobile app won’t win any awards for tidiness, but Google has unveiled a subtle (and much-needed) redesign for the Google Drive app’s home page. Finding files is now far easier, especially for Workspace customers. This update is rolling out to all Android, iPhone, and iPad devices over the coming weeks.

Going forward, the “Home” tab in Google Drive (or the “Suggested” sub-category for Workspace users) will show a condensed list of relevant files and documents. Without scrolling, you’ll see the names of about 10 files, or more if you’re on a tablet. It’s a fantastic departure from the old layout, which contained large (and somewhat useless) file preview images that took up way too much screen real estate.

Google is also replacing Drive’s “Notifications” feed with a new “Activity” view (a carryover from the desktop Google Drive). This tab is only for Workspace customers and is mainly for collaborative work; the “Activity” view will show you all the files that have recent comments, access requests, or approval requests. Notably, the “Activity” view includes a row of search filters that were previously hidden behind a dropdown menu.

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And for those who like to scan documents, a dedicated shortcut now appears above the “Add New” button in Google Drive. The new document-scanning shortcut takes up a bit of screen space, but it’s an improvement on the old system (which forced users to press “Add New” before selecting “Scan”).

Workspace customers will also notice a new “Starred” tab at the bottom of their Google Drive app. This tab contains all of your starred files and was already available for non-Workspace users.

Note that Google Drive always opens to its previously selected location. If you don’t want to use the app’s home page, that’s fine, just stay out of it. You’ll automatically enter “Files” or another tab when opening the Google Drive app.

This redesign is currently rolling out to “all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts.” It’s available on both iOS and Android. That said, this is a staggered rollout, so it may take a few weeks to reach all users.

Source: Google

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