The data is unencrypted and reencrypted with 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) when it reaches Google. As of 2025, Google Drive offers 15 gigabytes (GB) of free storage that’s shared by Drive, Gmail and Google Photos. Google Drive’s search feature can filter results by keyword, item name, file type, date modified or owner.
Save to Google Drive browser extension
Google announced shutting down Google Currents on July 5, 2023, for business and education. As part of Google Workspace, Google Currents comes with additional features designed for business use, including enhanced privacy controls and restricted communities. Google Meet is a standards-based Video Conferencing application, using proprietary protocols for video, audio and data transcoding. Although Google Hangouts remained part of Google Workspace, Google shut down Google Hangouts on November 1, 2022, and has since migrated all its users to Google Chat. It is one of two apps that constitute the replacement for Google Hangouts, the other being Google Meet.
Supports
This allows multiple users to collaborate on the same content in real time and always see the latest version of each file. The web service provides a centralized cloud storage hub where changes to content are automatically saved and synchronized across all connected devices. This had resulted in users receiving spam from unsolicited shared drives.
Advantages and disadvantages of Google Drive
Google Drive allowed users to share drive contents with other Google users without requiring any authorization from the recipient of a sharing invitation. Although Google has a 99.9% uptime guarantee for Google Drive for Google Workspace customers, Google Drive has suffered downtimes for both consumers and business users. In March 2017, Google announced that Google Drive had 800 million active users. On September 21, 2015, it was announced that Google Drive had over one million organizational paying users. On October 1, 2014, at its Atmosphere Live event, it was announced that Google Drive had 240 million monthly active users.
- Search results can be narrowed by file type, ownership, visibility, and the open-with app.
- In June 2017, Google announced that a new app, “Backup and Sync”, would be able to synchronize any folder on the user’s computer to Google.
- A press release posted on Google’s Official Enterprise Blog assured businesses that Google would encrypt data stored on its servers, as well as information being transmitted to or from them.
- However, those who need offline access can use Google Docs Offline, an official Chrome extension that enables viewing and editing without an internet connection.
- Between April 2012 and May 2013, Google Drive and Google+ Photos had a shared allowance for both free and purchased storage, whereas Gmail had a separate 10 GB storage limit, which increased to 25 GB on the purchase of any storage plan.
- Store, share, and collaborate on files and folders from your mobile device, tablet, or computer
Drive for desktop
- This built from an initial allowance of 1 GB at launch Gmail’s launch in 2004, with the free storage limit increased to 2GB in 2005, 2.8GB in 2007, 7.5GB in 2011, 10GB in 2012, and finally to 15GB in 2013.
- In order to view and edit Docs, Sheets, or Slides documents offline, users need to be using the Google Chrome web browser.
- In June 2017, Google announced that a new app called Backup and Sync would replace the existing separate Google Drive and Google Photos desktop apps, creating one unified app on desktop platforms.
- The synced folders and files count against the shared quota allocated between Gmail, Google Photos, and Google Drive.
- It was launched in April 2006, and integrates with Gmail for users to easily add events from email messages directly to the calendar.
- Google Drive’s mobile apps for iOS and Android allow users to store, share and view files.
The feature was announced to be expanded to iOS and the web in March 2017, though the website interface received the feature in May. This was later removed one day after it was publicly discovered following user backlash. A number of external web applications that work with Google Drive are available from the Chrome Web Store.
Search results can be narrowed by file type, ownership, visibility, and the open-with app. Files in other formats can also be handled through third-party apps that work with Google Drive, available from the Chrome Web Store. Google reported that as of 2021, there were more than 5,300 public apps available in the Google Workspace Marketplace. In March 2013, Google released an API for Google Drive that enables third-party developers to build collaborative apps that support real-time editing. In February 2013, the “Create” menu in Google Drive was revamped to include third-party apps, thus effectively granting them the same status as Google’s own apps. On September 13, 2021, the URL to a portion of existing files was changed, ostensibly for security reasons.
As of 2021, these features have been consolidated into Google Drive for Desktop, which provides both backup and file streaming capabilities. Another, Save to Google Drive, allows users to save web content directly to their Drive. Any changes made to files in that folder will automatically sync to Google servers once an internet connection is reestablished.
Since July 2022, the Google Workspace for Education – valid for educational institutions and Universities in particular – provides 100 TB of storage. Google offers 30 GB of Drive storage for all Google Workspace Starter customers, and unlimited storage for those using betico Google Workspace for Business. The option of yearly payments was introduced in December 2016, and is limited to the 100 GB and standard 2 TB storage plans.
Shared Drives
Photos uploaded using the “saver” quality setting before June 1, as well as Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides files that were not modified after June 1, continued to be exempt from storage quotas. Chromebook users can obtain 100 GB of Google Drive storage free for 12 months as long as the promotion is activated within 180 days of the Chromebook device’s initial purchase. Google Drive offers various tiers of storage starting with a free tier of 15 GB for individual users with options to purchase additional storage tiers for users and organizations available. In July 2017, Google announced their new downloadable software, Backup and Sync, for individual users of Google Drive. In June 2017, Google announced that a new app called Backup and Sync would replace the existing separate Google Drive and Google Photos desktop apps, creating one unified app on desktop platforms.
In July 2018, Google announced a new edition, called Drive Enterprise, for businesses that don’t want to buy the full Google Workspace. A press release posted on Google’s Official Enterprise Blog assured businesses that Google would encrypt data stored on its servers, as well as information being transmitted to or from them. Google Drive Enterprise (formerly Google Drive for Work) is a business version, as part of Google Workspace (formerly Google Apps for Work or G Suite), announced at the Google I/O conference on June 25, 2014, and made available immediately.