Dropbox has announced the release of new integrations with Microsoft, including real-time co-authoring of Microsoft files from within Dropbox.
According to the file sharing and cloud storage solution, Dropbox, teams can already access a beta version of Co-Authoring that will let them make live edits to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files from the web and mobile.
As part of Dropbox’s ‘Spring Release’, it is also launching an enhanced integration with Microsoft Teams that allows users to search, upload, share, and preview content in Dropbox from Microsoft 365.
On top of this, users will gain access to a plugin extension for Copilot for Microsoft 365 that can automatically answer questions and generate summaries.
Introducing the updates via its online blog, Dropbox explains how it used Virtual First’s example to improve collaboration experiences: “The reality of modern work is that teams are spread across multiple locations, time zones, and even companies.
“The simplest tasks, like collaborating on content and responding to feedback, can be a massive headache. More than ever, our customers need technology that makes teamwork effortless.
“Using the lessons we’ve learned from Virtual First, our playbook for distributed work, we’ve designed new tools that make it easier to find, organise, and share your content—all in one secure place.
“Today, we’re announcing new top-requested features to give you the control, flexibility, and speed to do your best work, all from Dropbox.”
Co-Authoring, Collaborative Content, and Copilot
These are all excellent feature upgrades that will no doubt add a major appeal when organisations that use Microsoft Teams are weighing up which cloud storage provider to side with.
The capabilities are unsurprisingly already available on Microsoft’s own OneDrive cloud storage solution.
Last month, Microsoft revealed for example that it will begin rolling out ‘Copilot in OneDrive’ in late April 2024.
The new tool will allow users to quickly retrieve information from files in their OneDrive.
Available for work and school customers with a Copilot for Microsoft 365 license, Copilot in OneDrive will be able to accessible from OneDrive for web and file viewer in Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive.
As well as accessing files, OneDrive users will also be able to leverage the Copilot plugin to create tables, outlines, FAQs, enhance content in a document, presentation, or spreadsheet, summarise files, generate insights, and more.
Microsoft also added a collaborative content upgrade, whereby customers with a Copilot for Microsoft 365 license would also be able to include Copilot-generated summaries when sharing documents with their co-workers.
Although it is always going to be tough competing with Microsoft on integrations with its own products, Teams-based organisations may be drawn to Dropbox for other reasons.
In a recent Gartner comparison between Dropbox Business and OneDrive for Business, Dropbox scored higher on certain areas, such as user experience, ease of deployment, and content management. When it came to the overall rating, however, Gartner awarded OneDrive 4.5 out of five, just ahead of Dropbox’s 4.4 out of five.
In December last year, Microsoft also launched the OneDrive for Teams App to replace the Teams Files app as a collaboration and productivity enhancement.
