OneDrive picks up new sharing experience on Android and iOS

By Dan Thorp-Lancaster
last updated

OneDrive's unified sharing experience is now coming to the mobile apps on iOS and Android.

Microsoft is giving its OneDrive mobile apps a bit of a sharing makeover today. The company announced a new sharing experience (opens in new tab), meant to match the UI that's currently available on other platforms, is now available for Android and iOS.

The new look provides a simplified set of controls and permissions. You can quickly select to share a file or folder from OneDrive with specific people or send a link to those who need access. You can also choose to allow editing with a checkbox, and control how long people will have access to the file or folder.

Most importantly, the interface matches that available on the web, in Explorer, and via Office apps, so you've got a unified sharing experience everywhere.

Aside from the OneDrive mobile apps, Microsoft also has some changes in store for Mac users. Starting this week, the standalone OneDrive app will be automatically installed as part of the Office 2016 for Mac package. If you're already using the version available on the Mac App Store, the standalone version will replace it and automatically migrate your settings. Microsoft explains:

Why are we doing this? First off, we want to make getting OneDrive as easy as possible as well as you up and running quickly. Second, many customers have asked us to add the standalone version of OneDrive as it will not only automatically launch at startup but the OneDrive quick access icon will stay persistent in the Mac Finder, much the same way it does on the Taskbar for Windows users today.

Additionally, Office documents on Mac will now only sync the changes, instead of syncing the full file each time. Files that have already been synced locally will now open faster, Microsoft says.

According to Microsoft, the new sharing experience is now available on Android and is currently rolling out on iOS. The OneDrive standalone app for Mac will be a part of Office 2016 starting this week.

Dan Thorp-Lancaster
Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl. 

3 Comments
  • I remember the times when people were all negative that Microsoft was giving more heart to Android and iOS apps than its own Windows Phone or Mobile platform. But now that I'm reading all these articles and the features these devices get I have the feeling that Microsoft has never ever given this much support for its own device. I wonder if it was intentional though. I am pretty sure that it's different people working on these devices. It kind of gives me the feeling that it was the developers who could not manage to put together a decent code for the Lumias.
  • I think you may be correct in part. I agree, Microsoft has not put this much effort in their own platform. However, to be fair, when MS was developing and updating apps regularly on Windows 10 Mobile, many of these features were already there, just not, arguably, some would say not as clean as the Android or is versions. As the Windows 10 Mobile platform began its decent into death, focus on updating its apps first just wasn't a priority. Since I've never actually sat down and did a full comparison of the OneDrive app on my old Lumia and Note 8, I can't tell you if the apps are 100% on part with one another. I do know that everything I've ever used it for has always been part of W10 Mobile version. Other features were just a bonus for me. For instance, I like that they cleaned up the photo UI in One Drive, because I have backed up everything on OneDrive and that's what I use as my got to photo viewer on my Note 8.
  • Because WinPhone will never succeed, why care?
    It's not part of Win10 (PC, S-mode, ARM, IOT, AR, MR, Xbox), there's no synergy. It's late to the market with 0 user base to start with (at least WoA is a full Win10, and XPA is possible. Programmers don't needa code and QA twice). It's a no devs no users and no users no dev loop. Why code for 4 (Win10, iOS, Android, WinPhone) instead of 3 (Win10, iOS, Android)?