Dropbox has announced that it will be working with Google to bring native Dropbox integration and apps to Google Cloud services over the next year. The collaborative effort will focus on joining Dropbox functionality, accounts, and services with key aspects of Google’s own Cloud services for enterprise with the goal of reducing the number of applications users need to get work done. That’s an interesting partnership between two companies who could be considered as adversaries in the cloud storage market. However, according to the announcement from the long-time cloud storage and sharing solutions provider, Google shares in the cooperative spirit of the venture. Representatives for the search giant point out that the integration will make G Suite much more accessible, enabling users to bring more tools they already use to their work across the platform.
While describing how the integration will work, Dropbox says that there will be three major advantages to using Dropbox on Google’s cloud platform. It all boils down to the fact that it will be easier to quickly create, edit, and share projects and files in a more centralized way from directly inside the communications apps already included with G Suite. For starters, Dropbox will be fully integrated to allow the creation and sharing of Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides in Dropbox itself and to save those directly to Dropbox itself. Meanwhile, native implementations of Dropbox’s tools will be created for use in both Gmail and the new Hangouts Chat. In Gmail, files will show additional information about Dropbox files shared, including dates for the creation, last modifications, and last access to those files. On the Hangouts side, previews of shared files will be available in the chat itself. Last but not least, admins who are already working with Dropbox Business will be able to manage content saved in Google’s proprietary file formats in Dropbox – just as they can already manage other Dropbox files.
Unfortunately, the only timeline associated with the collaboration is that the project is expected to be finished at some point later in 2018. The companies will likely announce more specific dates in the future as the final versions of software begin to take shape. So anybody interested in the status will want to keep an eye on Dropbox and Google’s announcements for more information.