OneDrive 3.0 is… here! Microsoft announced the next generation of OneDrive. Redesigned home page, updates in existing features, new ones coming soon, and much more, and Copilot 😊 Let’s go and check what’s coming in OneDrive.
New OneDrive home page
OneDrive has a brand-new Home page. The starting page has a new look and feel, is significantly faster, and has new features. It was released in the last few weeks, and I like it. I can quickly find the information I need.
Microsoft also redesigned the left-hand navigation and added some new options:
- Shared view – dedicated section where you can find all files shared with you
- Favorites – a view of all your favorite files
- People – files divided by who shared it with you. You can easily find files shared by your colleagues.
- Meetings – a dedicated view of all your past and future meetings. Each meeting has information about attendees, shared files, and available recordings. You can find meetings between 1-2 years back (info from Q&A session).
Upcoming features
Microsoft announced multiple features that will come to OneDrive in the coming months.
Open in the app – you will be able to open apps assigned to specific file types directly from OneDrive. Clicking on a PDF file will open an associated PDF Editor. Coming in December 2023.
OneDrive in Teams/Outlook – the new look and feel will be available in Teams and Outlook clients. One consistent experience across most used apps will help you find information faster. Coming in December 2023 (both Teams and Outlook).
Files On-Demand for Web – with this feature, you can select files and folders to be available from your device or the cloud only. All from the web client. Coming in early 2024.
Offline mode – this feature will bring offline mode to the browser client. You can work with your files available for offline access directly from the web, even if you are offline. This is huge! It will help a lot in so many scenarios. Coming in early 2024.
Add new – if you want to create a new file directly from OneDrive you can use any existing template to speed up the process. Coming in summer 2024.
Sync enhancements – Microsoft is working on OneDrive sync enhancements and performance. The upcoming changes (info from the Q&A session):
- Raise the sync file limit from 300k to 400k before the end of the year
- Colored folders from online OneDrive will be reflected on the desktop
Copilot in OneDrive
Copilot is coming to… OneDrive. It was inevitable. You can use it to search for a file, find information shared by your colleagues, and summarize. Next, you can create a new file or presentation, create folders, or prepare an email. All using natural language. To use this feature, you will need to purchase Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
Microsoft 365 Copilot is coming pretty soon – starting November 2023 large organizations will be able to purchase licenses. The next steps are still not known but I believe that next year will be the Copilot year. The full potential is yet to be discovered and tested by companies and users, but it will change how we use Microsoft 365 services (from office apps to SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, and more…).
Security and Governance
Microsoft is working on the technical part of OneDrive – security and governance.
Restricted access control – the policy lets you block specific people from accessing shared files in specific OneDrive accounts. You can use this to grant limited access to specific files for selected users by assigning a security group.
Moving OneDrive accounts across tenants – working with multiple tenant organizations? This feature is for you. Now you can move (migrate) a OneDrive account between tenants and all shared links will continue to work! Super useful in large multi-tenant companies. I had to do this at least 10 times this year – only in one organization.
Collaboration insights – this feature gives you data about the data-sharing behaviors of your users. You can use it to discover patterns and prevent data leaks. Available in private preview – you can register here.
Data export for OneDrive sync client admin reports – more reports! The feature exposes data about sync volume, health, errors, and more to Microsoft Graph Data Connect for SharePoint. You can use the data and analyze them using Azure tools (e.g., Power BI, Azure Synapse). Public preview expected by January 2024.
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