Dropbox Updates iOS App With File Comments, Document Creation, and More

[MacRumors]

Connected file management service Dropbox today announced an update to its iPhone and iPad apps that will debut a trio of new features to iOS devices, bringing easier navigation, introducing communication features, and allowing the creation of Microsoft Word documents from within the app itself.

Right from the home screen the Dropbox team has decided to make big changes, doing away with a static list of files and instead curating a showcase of documents and files with which a user has most recently interacted. This way, the company suggests, "The files you're most likely to need on the go will always be front and center."

The recently introduced comment feature for the Dropbox website will now also be available on iOS devices. Using an "@" symbol followed by a Dropbox user's name or email address, anyone can be brought into discussion over a particular document, with the app sending push notifications to the lock screen to ensure everyone is kept in the loop on any particular conversation.

The company also confirmed that "in the next few weeks" it would be introducing the ability to create and interact with Microsoft Office documents from within the iOS Dropbox apps. Any Word, Excel, or Powerpoint file created inside of the app will be subsequently saved to whatever Dropbox folder a user was in when creating the document, allowing instantaneous access to the file from everywhere a user can sign in to Dropbox.

As the company points out, however, the new update's most interesting feature is not any one of its individual new aspects but how they have the potential to work together to create a unique, more streamlined experience for its users.

The best part, though, is how these features work together. For example, when you're meeting with a client to brainstorm ideas for an upcoming project, you can use the recents tab on your iPhone or iPad to quickly pull up your last project for reference. Then you can create a Word doc to take notes as you discuss. After the meeting, you can @mention your client in a comment, so they have the notes and can add anything you've missed. Then when you get back to your desk, you can turn that Word doc into a full project plan.

The team also notes in its blog that while the main crux of today's new update centers on the enterprise and work-related world, all of the features can be used for "vacation planning, apartment hunting, or whatever else Dropbox helps you do." The new 3.9 update to Dropbox on iOS [Direct Link] will begin rolling out today, with an upcoming smaller update for in-app document editing planned for the near future.

Article Link: Dropbox Updates iOS App With File Comments, Document Creation, and More

 

[macintologist]

Even though it's more expensive and gives you less space, Dropbox is THE best cloud storage service, bar none. If you play the referral game like me you can obtain 21GB of space

 

[FieldingMellish]

They want it to be like an application rather than storage.

 

[tigres]

For 99.00/year for 1TB of use, I continue to find Dropbox invaluable to my personal and business life.

I use it for Everything.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

And you still can't edit text files, at all, with it. Also lacks a way of easily getting text out of the application and into another, or vice/versa.

Also, there doesn't appear to be any way to revert to prior versions of files, or restore deleted files, within the app. You still need to use the website to do that.

 

[2457282]

Even though it's more expensive and gives you less space, Dropbox is THE best cloud storage service, bar none. If you play the referral game like me you can obtain 21GB of space

For 99.00/year for 1TB of use, I continue to find Dropbox invaluable to my personal and business life.

I use it for Everything.

I like dropbox and agree with macintologist that Dropbox is awesome in many ways. Having said that, I finally surrendered to Apple and am now using their icloud drive. The integration with all their applications especially music and photos is what got me. Since then, I rarely use Dropbox. I will say that the interface for dropbox is better. But using the apple apps like pages and numbers, or photos and music, i really don't think about it too much.

 

[macduke]

Even though it's more expensive and gives you less space, Dropbox is THE best cloud storage service, bar none. If you play the referral game like me you can obtain 21GB of space

It really is. I remember reading some story a couple years ago about how Steve Jobs was entertaining the idea of buying them but decided not to. Nowadays Dropbox seems like they want to remain independent, but I still fear that it's only a matter of time until they decide to accept offers from Google or worse—FaceBook.

I also played the referral game—and all the other games—and was able to get up to around 25 or 26GB free before I bought an account. You can't beat over 1TB of data for only $8.25/mo. I use it for everything. I also have iCloud Drive 200GB plan, but that's mainly for syncing photos between devices. But that's worth $3.99/mo to me, and I can also store my large iOS backups since I have two 128GB devices that store a lot of application data. I like the native aspect of that better than the Dropbox automatic image backups which were inconsistent—but that's likely an iOS limitation and not Dropbox's fault. I pretty much exclusively use Dropbox for everything else, especially on my Mac, and on iOS for sending files I saved on my Mac on the go and for opening up Word and Excel files now that Office has Dropbox integration.

 

[nutmac]

I like dropbox and agree with macintologist that Dropbox is awesome in many ways. Having said that, I finally surrendered to Apple and am now using their icloud drive. The integration with all their applications especially music and photos is what got me. Since then, I rarely use Dropbox.

+1. While I still depend on Dropbox, its role has been reduced greatly over the years. I still use it to archive important stuff (e.g., tax returns) and synchronize iTunes library across multiple Macs (media files are in NAS but library metadata is in Dropbox). But I find myself only rarely linking apps directly to Dropbox.

Over time, Dropbox will find it very difficult to stay afloat as a syncing engine. It will need killer apps and fast.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

Can you select a folder yet for offline files?
Can you browse previous versions from within the app?

The tendency for software companies to develop flashy whizbang features before getting their basics ironed out is the reason we're ditching iOS as a productivity tool. Everything comes with so many exceptions on what it can't do, nothing just works when you need it to, out in the field. ...as a mobile device.

Not singling out Dropbox either, we've got iPads full of semi-functional software, and some of it made by Apple themselves. If we operated like this in our industry people would die and we'd be out of business, sued to pieces, and possibly in jail. I don't know why software companies consider this acceptable. It can't be lack of funding. Software makes 10x the money entire industries make, yet the product is hardly ever as solid.

Perhaps this is just burnout and when I go off and live in a cave.

 

[Woyzeck]

The tendency for software companies to develop flashy whizbang features before getting their basics ironed out is the reason we're ditching iOS as a productivity tool. Everything comes with so many exceptions on what it can't do, nothing just works when you need it to, out in the field. ...as a mobile device.

I agree. The problem is that today's software companies think in platforms and are keen on cross selling their products, so it's all about getting a stake here and there and not about satisfying their customer's needs.

Apple is a good example for that. Bugs which would cost them a few thousand dollars to get them fixed just don't get fixed if there are no new sales related to that. Instead of that they spend billions on a streaming service.

Honestly, I think that even Microsoft was never so bad in maintaining their products as Apple is today. Why would I need a watch if my notebook can't even establish a stable WIFI connection or access a Samba share without any ground level tweaks ?

 

[roadbloc]

I used to love Dropbox.

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Honestly, I think that even Microsoft was never so bad in maintaining their products as Apple is today. Why would I need a watch if my notebook can't even establish a stable WIFI connection or access a Samba share without any ground level tweaks ?

I concur with this notion.

 

[bingeciren]

I used to rely on DropBox for cloud storage, however a month ago I switched to BitTorent Sync.

Now, all my files reside in my 24/7 Mac Mini. My files stay private and I have no space limit like in DropBox. Best of all, local syncs are done over the local WiFi, so syncing is fast.

The free version (5 folders in total but with unlimited sub-folders) is more than adequate for my needs. #

 

[RightMACatU]

I love Dropbox... but for the past year or so it keeps crashing on my iPad and iPhone every time I use it for more than a few clicks. Re-installed several times and now ready to "Drop" da Box

 

[Steve121178]

I've tried all major cloud storage solutions and Dropbox is so far ahead of ALL of them it's crazy.

OneDrive is great and beats Dropbox in many areas but the upload & download sync speeds are terrible!

iCloud is just a trainwreck. Apple can't do cloud stuff.

Box.com is ok but geared more towards business users. Having said that, the personal plan is decent. Upload & download speeds are still crap but not as slow as OneDrive.

Copy.com is horrendous in every way imaginable.

Google Drive is really poor although their mobile apps have improved. The desktop sync client murders your CPU and hogs resources, rather like every other Google application! Google's software is clearly the result of a development team who do no testing whatsoever.

It doesn't matter that Dropbox are more expensive. They are the best so get my money.