Skydrive App Launches For Android Phones and Tablets

A few months back, Microsoft revamped and relaunched their so cloud storage service Skydrive. Until now, there were clients for iPhone and Windows Phone ecosystems. However, this time it has officially landed in the Android Market. Devices running on Android 2.3 or any newer version can install Skydrive app to upload and store files in the cloud and make it an anyplace access. Simply, download and install the app on your Android device and sign in using your Hotmail or Windows Live Id, that you use for your Skydrive account. However, according to Microsoft, this app is optimized for devices and tabs running on Android 4.0, yet it worked fine on Gingerbread or higher. skydrive-android-app-download-from-google.play

The Design

Similar to the iOS app released in December 2011, the SkyDrive app for Android offers most basic features like, alphabetical listing of folders and documents saved to it, folders displaying number on it showing how many files are contained within it. Top of the screen demonstrates the main Skydrive menu, recent documents you have accessed and documents others have shared with you under a simple drop-down list. The navigation bar at the bottom of the home screen has an array of options like, view files and folders in a list or grid display, uploading new files, creating a new folder, and a refresh button. Admittedly, Microsoft has given it a touch of the recently adopted Metro style designing. android-skydrive-app

File Sharing

If you want to share your files from it to others, just choose them and tap on the link icon at the bottom of the screen. It will now let you share the link through other existing apps installed on your device like, Facebook, Gmail, Google+, Bluetooth etc. A maximum of 2GB data can be shared with Skydrive. However, it lacks the synchronizing ability of its online Windows desktop counterpart, which connects to other Microsoft products like, Outlook mail, Calendar, Contacts in a straight way from it’s start page. This is certainly a heartbreak as auto-syncing has always been a standard feature for any cloud service. Although it’s a little late to respond to things(Android commands a big community which is hard to ignore), this Skydrive app for Android is a product that will provide the much desired portability for users, Though Google Drive is said to posses better file sharing abilities, Skydrive is worth downloading for it’s 7GB factor(or 25GB if you are an old user).