Cloud services with online storage are currently shooting up like mushrooms out of the ground. Even Google didn’t want to stay behind in this segment and provide the users of Google Drive with five gigabytes of cloud storage for free. Google Drive allows the uploading and downloading of text, tables, PDF files and other file formats as well as the editing of Google documents. And the best part is that you can access Google Drive on your Android device. In this review of Google Drive Android app we take a look at how to install Google Drive, the features of the Android app, and link to download the app.
Installing Google Drive
During the installation of Google Drive you need Access to
- Accounts: use the authentication credentials, manage the accounts list, access to other Google services, Google Docs, Google Spreadsheets, act as account manager, discover known accounts, view configured accounts, access to all Google services.
- Hardware controls: access pictures and videos, vibrator control
- Network communication: full Internet access, view network status
- Personal data: read contact details
- Memory contents of the USB memory and the SD card, delete / modify
- System tools: sync settings, disable standby mode of the tablet / phone, subscribed feeds create, read sync statistics, read sync settings, read subscribed feeds
Before you can start with the upload and download from android smartphone or tablet, you have to login into Google Drive using Gmail account.
Review of Google Drive Android App
Features
On the home page of the app you can see your own storage and access recently used stored files. You can also access all Google Docs documents and sort them, either by title, last modified, last accessed, and last modified.
Sharing of Documents
You will see an arrow icon next to the listing, tap and long hold on it to share with contacts, rename, send, open, delete. You can also save it for reading in offline mode but offline documents can’t be edited.
Because Google Docs is integrated with Google Drive, all files that have been previously converted into Google Docs or stored in rich text formatting can be opened and edited. To open or edit the other formats, for example video or music files, it is necessary that an additional compatible program is installed on your android device.
Uploading Media Files
You can directly upload media files from you android device.The uploading and downloading time depends on the file size from a few seconds for a text file and a few minutes for a piece of music.
Unfortunately, the synchronization between your phone and Google Drive only works manually, not automatically. You can upload multiple photos from phone to Google Drive but you can’t upload entire folders from the file manager.
Operability
Google Drive is very easy and intuitive. From an icon on the top of the screen you can access documents, spreadsheets and upload more files to the cloud. All other functions are also easily accessed.
Conclusion
Google Drive is a great improvement in comparison with the simple Google Docs – in terms of not only the amount of space, but also the functionality. Practically, documents can now also be created on Google Docs directly from android phone and the uploading and downloading of other formats is also possible.
Desirable improvement would be an automatic synchronization option and an offline editing option for Google Docs.
Download Google Drive App from Play Store
About the Author
Greg is Related to Technology field manages a blog that provides latest android firmware updates. He also likes to read a lot .
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