The face of OneDrive has changed
Microsoft is overhauling its main OneDrive web app with a new Fluent design. This design more closely matches the latest changes to the Windows 11 interface and Office applications, and also adapts to the latest File Explorer design updates. There is now an artificial intelligence-supported “For You” section at the top, just like in File Explorer.
This updated web view also includes a revamped Shared view, which now includes all files shared across Teams, through emails, and other ways Office documents are shared with you. If you’re working on a group of files with colleagues, there’s also a new People view to make it a lot easier. You can focus on the files you and your colleagues are working on just by finding their face or name. You can also filter this view by name or pin colleagues you work closely with at the top. You can also now choose the colors of your folders, and when you share them with your colleagues, they can also see the color choice.
Favorites have arrived
The search experience in OneDrive is also being overhauled with AI features, making it easier to find friends and family in pictures you’ve stored on Microsoft’s cloud storage service. These features will be tested with a limited number of consumers starting this month and will be generally available in early 2024.
OneDrive is also becoming much faster to use and offline support is being improved. Microsoft says OneDrive on the web launches twice as fast, with instant sorting, improved scrolling, and improved offline support. It will soon be possible to run OneDrive in the browser without an internet connection. Files On-Demand is also coming to the browser version so you can mark files as available offline.
There are also changes on the corporate side
Microsoft also plans to integrate its Copilot AI system into OneDrive for anyone with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license in December. Copilot will provide a daily file summary, like a catch-up feature, for documents you and your colleagues are working on. This will provide a list of significant changes to the files and a summary of any new comments. Microsoft says it will intelligently organize these summaries based on context and relevance. You can try most of the interface changes to OneDrive today at onedrive.com. More will be put into use in the coming months.