By In case you haven’t heard, Microsoft recently announced plans to give SkyDrive a name change to OneDrive. Microsoft would have you believe it was because of a desire to pursue a new marketing angle that allows them to advertise “one” place for all your stuff, but those of us geeky enough to have deeper knowledge know it’s because Microsoft was pressured by British Sky Broadcasting on grounds of branding confusion.
None of that matters, though — it’s OneDrive now, and it’s the same service it’s been since Microsoft introduced it. That said, today’s announcement doesn’t simply bring a sweeping branding change for those of us on Android. An upgrade to the OneDrive app also brings us a new feature that will automatically backup photos that have been taken with your phone’s camera, just in case you need peace of mind knowing your photos are safe should anything ever happen to your phone.
Beyond that, Microsoft is also giving users extra space on top of the 7GB that comes standard. You can get up to 5GB of free storage, though you’ll need to have some friends sign-up with ugly referral codes in order to hit that. You’ll get 500MB for each friend, so even if you only get a few you’ll have a bit more space to work with. There’s also 3GB of extra storage waiting for you just for using Microsoft’s photo backup option, so be sure to set that up if you need the extra room.
While those of us in Android land would naturally gravitate toward Google Drive, Microsoft doesn’t have a bad alternative on their hands. I personally use OneDrive for storing and managing my Xbox One GameDVR clips, and I can’t say it’s been bad — it’s been quite the enjoyable experience, actually. If, for whatever reason, Google Drive isn’t doing it for you and you’re looking for a suitable replacement not named DropBox, this is not a bad place to start. Give it a shot by finding it in the Google Play Store.
[via Microsoft]
Hmm.. So many options in farming out cloud storage eh?
OneDrive is a very good solution for those of us that use more than one platform. Very glad to finally have the photo backup on Android. I just wish they’d bring their free OneDrive Office clients to Android.
I don’t see any advantage to using this over Google Drive (25 GB) or DropBox (52 GB)… Heck I even have 50GB free of Box.
Is the auto-backup actually working for anyone? It’s not working on my Note 3.
Microsoft….one of the worlds largest billion dollar software producers….owns literally millions of servers. Runs some of the best online game services and provides enterprise with an excellent OS………….can only offer 5 gigs. What the cluck.
They didn’t get to be those things by giving stuff away.
I have 6 email accounts – that means I can get 3 more gigs by having my “friends” sign up.
m$ as usual demonizes android but spreads its leg to get business
I turned on the photo sync, it synced, I even took another photo that uploaded—but no extra 3GB. Just the same 7GB I’ve always had.
seems like alot of things dropbox has already
One(Sky)drive is fairly quick these days, and the desktop application recognises junction links last time I tried Google Drive, it didn’t.
I had a free 25GB grandfathered in, so it works well for me.