Google has revealed that significant updates are on the way for its cloud-based file storage service, Google Drive. The most recent set of changes to the well-known cloud storage service primarily consists of a sleek new home page, but iOS users also get a little bonus.
When it rolls out over the next few months, every Drive user will automatically land on the new homepage, suitably titled the “Home” view. However, you will have the option to revert to the previous view if you’d rather. Google describes how Home will be “streamlined” in comparison to the typical My Drive landing page and how it will make it “easier and faster for you to find files that matter most” in a blog post outlining the changes.
Personalized recommendations that utilize artificial intelligence (AI) to determine which files and folders you frequently access (or documents linked to forthcoming events in your Google calendar) will be included on the Home screen as a result. It will also adopt Google’s Material Design 3 guidelines for a (hopefully) more modern and user-friendly look, and it will contain new “search chips” that make sifting your files easier.
Folks, that’s not all.
Nor is Google stopping there. The much-anticipated Drive feature—the document scanner—is now available for iPhone and iPad users. It utilizes the camera on your smartphone to capture crisp scans of paper documents, which are subsequently turned into PDFs. You can even sequentially scan multiple images to create multi-page documents.
It’s encouraging to note that Google isn’t aiming to exclude iPhone owners from this capability, as Drive users on Android have had access to it for some time. Along with using machine learning to recommend names for your scanned papers, the document scanner (which was recently updated for Android Users) can now identify store receipts and assign the proper filename to them.
Users of iOS and iPadOS are already starting to receive the scanner feature, so if you own an Apple device, you should anticipate getting it soon if you don’t already. The new Google Drive homepage will roll out gradually, with early access opening immediately and a general public release for individual users on January 15 of next year.
Personally, I have my doubts about Drive’s AI-powered homepage because, in my experience, AI-assisted or not, “suggested content” in the programs I use has seldom been helpful. It’s not like this change is being imposed on us, though, as Google has kindly already confirmed that users will receive an instant pop-up asking if they’d like to switch their default view back to the previous My Drive page.
