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Microsoft rolls out SkyDrive app for Android phones

Summary: Microsoft's SkyDrive for Android is available for download from the Google Play store.

Mary Jo Foley

By for All About Microsoft |

Microsoft has made available for download from the Google Play store its SkyDrive cloud-storage app for Android phones.

skydriveforandroid

The newest member of the SkyDrive app family, SkyDrive for Android joins the already available SkyDrive for Windows, SkyDrive for Mac, SkyDrive for iOS and SkyDrive for Windows Phone apps.

Microsoft officials had said a couple weeks ago the new SkyDrive for Android app would be coming "in just a few weeks."

According to an August 28 blog post on "Inside SkyDrive" blog, Microsoft's development team wanted to make sure the latest SkyDrive app "feels natural" for Android phone users. The new release, which is designed to "work best" with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), is still fully functional on Android 2.3 and above, Microsoft officials said.

SkyDrive for Android provides users with access to documents, photos and other files users store themselves and/or those shared by others with you. It allows users to choose multiple photos or videos to upload from their phones. It allows users to share files and photos via a link in email or in another app. And it allows users to open SkyDrive files from other Android apps.

The SkyDrive team is on a delivery roll, as of late, introducing new cloud-storage features and an updated look-and-feel, alongside new client implementations.

Topics: Cloud, Android, Microsoft, Smartphones, Storage

About

Mary Jo has covered the tech industry for more than 25 years for a variety of publications and Web sites, and is a frequent guest on radio, TV and podcasts, speaking about all things Microsoft-related. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008).

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14 comments
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  • It took them long enough

    But it does look really nice.
    Michael Alan Goff
    Reply 2 Votes

  • Android friends are impressed...

    My Android loving friends love the app so far (most of them signed up for SkyDrive for the free 25Gb) but didn't really use it.

    They especially love the idea of when looking a folder with photos that they see thumbnails...I said imagine if you had a WP with integration of photos from SkyDrive, Camera Roll, and your favorite Social Networks...plus the automatic backup of photos.

    Maybe the timing of the Android release may pull over some Android users to Windows Phone...
    kjb434
    Reply 4 Votes

  • Very Cool

    So far the app is very cool as is the entire new SkyDrive experience. I am using it more and more now.
    Butch Adams
    Reply Vote

  • Meh

    Looks nice, and works smoothly. It still does not really do anything you can't do with Dropbox. What would kick it ahead of Dropbox is the ability to search pictures using metadata (like the people tags you can add with Photo Gallery) or search inside word files from my phone. As the android app stands today I can't get it to search at all, not even for file names (or maybe I've missed this), thats really bad if all I can do is scroll and hunt. It would also be nice to have the capability to sync specific folders to my phone or tablet, not just to sync pictures. I get this capability for my Dropbox account using Dropsync, but for a sync software that ought to be baked in.

    I can be had, but they have to come up with some features yet.
    txscott
    Reply 1 Vote

  • Finally

    I hope it can support multiple users.
    Emacho
    Reply Vote

  • One aspect that is often overlooked...

    But I feel it is the real game-changer, is the synchronization of settings for an ever expanding field of devices. Photos and documents are definitely needed, but it seems switching from device to device leaves the typical user setting up preferences, browser favorites, and sometimes even contacts, on each and every device separately. I'd love to see this technology (now that it spans a diverse range of products) allow for a common dataset so that these things follow the user on whatever device available. I've been playing with Windows 8, which is where this idea sprang to mind.

    Someone that writes those client programs/device-filtered SkyDrive database may be in for some lucrative times.
    FuzzyBunnySlippers
    Reply Vote

    • Before I get the response, iCloud...

      Please refrain. I am considering the device ecosystem from a 30kft level. Not a mfgr closed ecosystem for each device. One that spans them all, with obvious proper placement/filtering of data.
      FuzzyBunnySlippers
      Reply Vote

      • All of That Stuff Works With Your Google Account and Android

        Seriously. If you use a google account and android, it can back up and restore your applications, settings, email, contacts, calendar,files (gdrive) and book marks. Works like a charm. Calendar, contacts, email and files work nicely cross platfform on an iphone, just a little tricker to set up.

        It is my presumption that your outlook.com or hotmail.com account will be able to do the same with a windows phone.
        txscott
        Reply Vote

  • Hooray!!

    Hope this is the start of a new awakening.

    Now I hope they will launch Live Messenger next.
    kingkong88@...
    Reply Vote

  • Feel?

    I see the new look, but where's the feel? I know, writers use "look and feel" all the time, but the "and feel" part doesn't really mean anything, in my opinion--unless you are talking about virtual reality with tactile feedback. Apple's lawyers invented the term "look and feel" to try to bolster their copyright claim for the basic elements of the Mac user interface, which Apple took from Xerox. They knew that the look, without literal copying of the screen, was not enough. It didn't work.
    Finell
    Reply Vote

  • One Note

    I couldn't get the Skydrive app to open the One Note documents I have in Skydrive
    rdrcomp
    Reply 2 Votes

  • Negatives regarding skydrive for Android

    1) No search function of any type.
    2) Can only upload photos and videos from phone, no spreadsheets, txt files, etc.
    3) TOS say you can't store anything thats vulgar, or contains nudity, pornography or violence. Now I don't have any of that kind of stuff and don't want it. But if they are enforcing this kind of ban it means you are looking at the stuff you have stored and I don't want them doing that either.
    txscott
    Reply Vote

  • Dropbox

    Does anyone know if it will work better than Dropbox?
    MichaelWells
    Reply Vote

  • Converted!

    As of last night, I am a Skydrive convert. Their upgraded storage options were FAR cheaper than Google's Drive. The Android app on my S2 is excellent.
    roblightbody
    Reply Vote
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