OneDrive gets new interface design on the web

• Microsoft announces interface changes for OneDrive.
• The new features and improvements will be available for school and work accounts.
• Some of these changes include a new “Home” page, improved navigation, organization, and file sharing.
• The company isn’t saying if some of these improvements will roll out to consumers.

Microsoft unveils a revamped design interface for OneDrive on the web for school and business accounts, making navigating and organizing files and folders easier and more options to improve customization. The new experience resembles the existing interface for consumers but with some additional changes.

On the new “Home” page, the “For you” section uses AI to recommend and prioritize timely and relevant files. Also, a new context-based organization on the left navigation allows you to browse files using different views, including recent, favorites, shared, people, and meetings.

Furthermore, the experience includes a new “Activity” inline view that lets you track comments that may require your attention. Perhaps the most interesting view is “Shared” since it lets you quickly find all the files shared with you by anyone in one location.

The “People” view organizes the files based on the people you are collaborating with. According to the company, sometimes users remember more the people they are working with than the file name, and this new view should make it easier to find files based on the people collaborating on the project. You can also pin people at the top of the view and review activities without opening the file.

The “Meetings” view aims to organize content based on what has been shared during meetings, including chats, notes, and loops. If you are invited to an upcoming meeting, you will even have access to the files before the meeting.

If you want to mark some files as favorites, you can now do that with the “start-tap” option. Your favorite files will appear in the “Favorites” view.

In addition, the search for OneDrive has also been updated to surface files more accurately using keywords, file types, and more, and the service will even suggest files and folders based on the search history. Even further, the “Home” page now includes filters to quickly sort Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF files.

Another change that users will find in this design update is the ability to change the color of folders, which provides a visual queue to help identify the contents of folders more quickly.

The company is also improving the file-sharing experience within OneDrive across the Microsoft 365 platform. As part of the overhaul update, Microsoft is updating the sharing dialog to make it more useful while removing the clutter. Additionally, you can now add File Shortcuts links to make sharing files much easier.

These new features and changes will also become available for the Files app on Microsoft Teams since when accessing files with the collaboration service, you are technically accessing OneDrive.

Finally, OneDrive will expand the ability to open files on the web or with a desktop application. In the past, you had the option to open Office files on the web or desktop, but the option was not available for every file type. In this update, the company is adding an “Open in App” option from the context menu to open other types of files (such as “.mp4,” “.jpeg,” and “.pdf”) on the web or the desktop with the default application.

Microsoft isn’t saying exactly when these new features and changes will roll out to customers, but it’s expected that they will ship sometime this year. Although these improvements are meant for schools and businesses, it’s likely that some of these features will eventually appear for regular consumers.