Review: Copy now available for Android, 10GB+ of free cloud storage when you sign up a friend
There’s a new kid on the block when it comes to cloud storage. I think just about everyone knows about Dropbox, Google Drive and Amazon Cloud Drive. Well, now it looks like we have a new challenger. They’re called Copy and they’ve recently introduced an Android application into the Play Store. After checking it out, I must say… I’m rather impressed.
Okay, let’s talk about storage first. It’s pretty much a standard to offer 5GB of storage for free upfront. That’s a given. But where Dropbox offers bonus storage for getting friends to sign up (small 500MB increases), Google Drive/the others offer nothing. Copy separates themselves from the competition by offering an additional 5GB for every person you get to sign up, who in turn, gets an additional 5GB for using your link. That’s freakin’ HUGE. That means you’re probably not going to want to sign up on your own — you’re gonna wanna use a friend’s sign up link (just pick a random signup link from our comments section).
Let’s take a look at the Android app. Overall, it’s very clean, very minimal. Stuff stored in the cloud is separated by the tab marked “Contents” (although wouldn’t cloud make more sense?). Clicking onto the tab marked “Upload” will display all the media on your phone, and you can further swipe to the left to access raw files (documents, apps, etc.). Sounds great, right? Not so fast…
What really bugged me is trying to share from the app. It’s easy to open a picture and “copy public link” on your smartphone, but dealing with folders is a whole lot more hassle. To share an entire folder, it’s not as simple as copying a public link (like with photos), you’re only presented with a single way to invite someone to view a folder and it’s by email. I know, it sounds silly to complain about, but I’m constantly uploading pictures of events (birthdays, trips, general adventures) from my camera, it’d be nice to be able to share from the app via SMS, Gtalk, or other messaging services (Twitter even). What’s funny is how easy it is to copy a folder link via the desktop client. I don’t understand why this would be left out of the Android app? Hopefully it can be fixed in an update.
For those that want to back up all their smartphone photos automatically to Copy, there’s that option as well. In fact, I kinda prefer over Dropbox. Where Dropbox will upload every single image — whether it’s a screenshot, download, or picture taken with your camera — Copy will only upload actual pictures taken with your camera (and over WiFi if you should choose), and I like that.
But here’s where the Copy app gets uploading everything else wrong. First, you’re only allowed to upload photos/media/files to the root of your Copy folder. There’s currently no way to choose or create an actual folder to upload your files. This blew my mind. And since all your files will go to the root of your Copy folder, you’ll have a ton of files that need to be placed into a folder and organized. Of course, you can easily do this on the desktop client but batch selecting multiple files and dragging them into the appropriate folder. With the Copy app for Android, there is no way to batch select any files stored in the cloud. Let me clarify: you’ll have to long press each file individually, select “move” and choose the appropriate folder — each, and every, single, time.
In conclusion, it seems Copy is doing a whole lot right and what they don’t, can easily be addressed in a future update. You get a nice chunk of free storage to start out with (really, nobody should start out with anything less than 10GB if everyone is using someone else’s link to sign up), and if you’d pay for additional storage, plans start out at 250GB for $10 a month or $100 a year. Not too bad but I can’t figure out why they wouldn’t offer a 100GB option for half the price? Also, I didn’t talk much about it, but the desktop application for Mac and Windows is top notch and performs well (it’s almost identical to Dropbox’s offering). If you’re looking for a new place to store your virtual boxes of…. comic books, Copy might be the perfect cloud storage for you. As I mentioned before, sign up with the affiliate link below to get an additional 5GB and check out the free app now available in the Google Play Store.
[Sign up for Copy using this link to get 5GB of additional storage (or use a link from someone in the comments) | Google Play Link: Copy]