After teasing us several weeks ago, Microsoft has announced a major new update for its OneDrive cloud file storage and sharing service for Microsoft 365 users. The new OneDrive 3.0 update includes some new design elements along with many new features.
The official OneDrive blog has an extensive look at what"s coming for users with the 3.0 update. One of the major efforts with this update is to make it easier for users to find the stored files they need. That has caused Microsoft to make some design changes to the OneDrive home page on the web.
The new OneDrive Home experience reduces the time to find your files so you can spend more time doing. Our new “For you” area uses AI-powered file recommendations to surface files personalized to you, bringing the most relevant, time-sensitive content to top of your OneDrive. We’ve also added rich, context-based organization, such as views that show you recent, shared, and favorite and files from meetings.
Microsoft also has a new Shared page in OneDrive, where users can see which files are shared by which people and how they were shared. There"s also a new People view page, where you can see the files shared with individuals. Other new OneDrive file pages including seeing which files were shared in different meetings, along with filtering files by their specific type.
You can also customize the look of your OneDrive files by changing the colors of different files in the interface, and also by labeling certain files you want to go back to as Favorites. All of these features are available now for Microsoft 365 work and school customers
Microsoft also has a bunch of other OneDrive features it will be adding in the coming months. They include being able to open a file stored in OneDrive on your preferred desktop app. Microsoft is also working on a new Media view where you can see all of your stored photos and videos in one page. There will also be an "Add new" where you can simply create a new document inside OneDrive.
Microsoft also plans to add its Copilot generative AI assistant in OneDrive for Microsoft 365 customers in December. It will let users find the files they need and even summarize them without having to open and look at them.
There"s a ton of other new and upcoming OneDrive 3.0 features we didn"t mention so be sure to go to the official OneDrive blog for all the info.