Skip to main content

Google dumped a batch of new Drive features and tools into its G Suite platform

During the Google Cloud Next conference in San Francisco, the company introduced several new Google Drive tools for the enterprise sector. These include the official public rollout of Team Drives along with Google Vault for Drive, Drive File Stream, and a few more. The tools are part of Google’s G Suite subscription-based platform offering versions of Gmail, Google Drive, and more packed with enterprise-focused features.

For starters, Team Drives first made its appearance for testing at the end of 2016. It provides an assigned team of individuals with a shared space in the cloud. Administrators can add new team members when needed, manage the sharing permissions, and keep a watchful eye over every Team Drive used by the company. Team members can leave the group whenever they want, but the files uploaded to the shared space will remain intact.

Recommended Videos

Next is Google Vault for Drive. This service targets the archiving and “eDiscovery” needs of the enterprise by enabling corporations to export, search, hold, and retain their data stored on Google Drive. Examples include files stored on Team Drives, Google Groups data, email messages, and more. The typical use of Vault spans from audit reports to legal holds to setting retention rules for archiving data.

As for Drive File Stream, it’s available now in the Early Adopter Program. This service doesn’t require users on a Mac or PC to download their files locally before viewing or editing. Instead, files are automatically streamed when accessed from Google Drive. That essentially means teams aren’t waiting for files to sync or worrying about the storage space on their device. All files are streamed “on demand,” but they can be stored locally too for offline access when needed.

“With Drive File Stream, you can work with Drive files directly from the apps you’re used to, like Microsoft Word and Adobe Photoshop,” Google states. “Any changes you make to files in those apps are saved automatically to Drive and can be accessed from any of your devices later.”

Finally, subscribers can use Quick Access with Team Drives through iOS and Android devices. Coming soon to the web as well, this service is based on the company’s machine intelligence that will “surface” files stored on Google Drive based on intelligent predictions. The artificial intelligence analyzes the Drive’s activity, interactions between colleagues, and workday patterns to determine what files are most relevant in a search. Behavior examples used by the AI include frequently shared files, the times of relevant meetings, and more.

Outside those four new features for Google Drive, the company also announced its acquisition of AppBridge. This company developed a migration tool of the same name for the G Suite platform, enabling organizations to move their data from other storage solutions to Google Drive. It supports migration from on-premise devices, cloud services, and “hybrid solutions.” File permissions are also brought over during the migration process.

Organizations wanting to jump on the G Suite train can contact Google here.

Kevin Parrish
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kevin started taking PCs apart in the 90s when Quake was on the way and his PC lacked the required components. Since then…
What is HDMI 2.2? Everything you need to know
The rear of the Onn 4K Pro Streaming Device has a reset button, Ethernet port, HDMI port, USB-A port, and a barrel power connector.

Officially announced at CES 2025, HDMI 2.2 is the next-generation HDMI standard that promises to double available bandwidth for higher resolution and refresh rate support, and will require a new cable to support these new standards. It will also bring with it advanced features for improved audio and video syncing between devices.

But the new cable isn't coming until later this year, and there are no signs of TVs supporting the new standard yet. Here's everything you need to know about HDMI 2.2.
What can HDMI 2.2 do?
The standout feature of HDMI 2.2 is that is allows for up to double the bandwidth of existing Ultra High Speed HDMI cables using the HDMI 2.1 protocol. HDMI 2.2 is rated for up to 96 Gbps, opening up support for native 16K resolution support without compression, or native 4K 240Hz without compression. Throw DSC on and it should support monitors up to 4K 480Hz or 8K in excess of 120Hz.

Read more
ChatGPT now interprets photos better than an art critic and an investigator combined
OpenAI press image

ChatGPT's recent image generation capabilities have challenged our previous understing of AI-generated media. The recently announced GPT-4o model demonstrates noteworthy abilities of interpreting images with high accuracy and recreating them with viral effects, such as that inspired by Studio Ghibli. It even masters text in AI-generated images, which has previously been difficult for AI. And now, it is launching two new models capable of dissecting images for cues to gather far more information that might even fail a human glance.

OpenAI announced two new models earlier this week that take ChatGPT's thinking abilities up a notch. Its new o3 model, which OpenAI calls its "most powerful reasoning model" improves on the existing interpretation and perception abilities, getting better at "coding, math, science, visual perception, and more," the organization claims. Meanwhile, the o4-mini is a smaller and faster model for "cost-efficient reasoning" in the same avenues. The news follows OpenAI's recent launch of the GPT-4.1 class of models, which brings faster processing and deeper context.

Read more
Microsoft’s Copilot Vision AI is now free to use, but only for these 9 sites
Copilot Vision graphic.

After months of teasers, previews, and select rollouts, Microsoft's Copilot Vision is now available to try for all Edge users in the U.S. The flashy new AI tool is designed to watch your screen as you browse so you can ask it various questions about what you're doing and get useful context-appropriate responses. The main catch, however, is that it currently only works with nine websites.

For the most part, these nine websites seem like pretty random choices, too. We have Amazon, which makes sense, but also Geoguessr? I'm pretty sure the point of that site is to try and guess where you are on the map without any help. Anyway, the full site list is as follows:

Read more