Dropbox and Google Cloud have announced a partnership that will see Dropbox develop cross-platform integrations that connect its collaboration platform with G Suite tools including Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides and Hangouts.
This is the third announcement of its kind that Dropbox has made so far in 2018. In January, the cloud storage vendor announced it was extending its partnership with Adobe by introducing a new Adobe Creative Cloud integration.
The Adobe partnership means that users are able to quick preview files created in XD – Adobe’s designing, prototyping, and sharing user experiences solution. The previews are available from both dropbox.com or its mobile apps.
A few weeks later, Dropbox revealed it was now possible to share files of any size with an add-in for Microsoft Outlook that allows users to share files via links.
The partnership announced today with Google Cloud means that every Dropbox user will have access to those integrations. These are expected to be available from the second half of 2018.
“We want to make it easy for our users to work across devices with the tools they love,” Dropbox vice president of engineering, Tony Lee, said. “This partnership with Google Cloud is one more way we're creating a unified home for content and the conversations around it. We're excited to work with Google to break down silos and centralise the information teams rely on every day.”
With the integrations yet to be developed, Dropbox has announced that users will be able to create, open and edit Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides files that live in Dropbox.
Users will have the option to open and edit compatible files directly in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides from the Dropbox platform. Dropbox Business administrators will also be able to manage Google Docs, Sheets and Slides files just like any other content that lives in Dropbox.
The company also plans to develop additional native G Suite integrations with Gmail and Hangouts Chat. This will include new Dropbox for Gmail Add-Ons, where users will be able to select and generate Dropbox file links directly from Gmail.
In addition, users will be able to choose to see metadata on Dropbox content in Gmail including date created, last saved and last accessed.
New Dropbox and Google Hangouts Chat Integration will allow users to search for, share, and preview Dropbox files in Google Hangouts.
“Our goal is to make G Suite accessible no matter what tools you bring to work, and these integrations help our shared customers better collaborate in the tools they use every day,” Google Cloud director, product management, Ritcha Ranjan, said.
“Working with Dropbox to make our apps work better together helps our customers focus their time on work that matters.”
On 24 February, Dropbox filed for an initial public offering (IPO) of up to US$500 million with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The cloud storage vendor plans to have its common stock listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "DBX”.
Based in California, the digital storage firm has around 11 million paid users across 180 countries, with about half of its 2017 revenue coming from customers outside the United States.
