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Google is testing a new homepage in Drive on the web. The UI redesign adds a dedicated Home section to the left navigation panel. It will surface “your most relevant files and folders,” the company explains. The idea is to help you find what you need faster based on your history and usage pattern.
According to a recent tweet from @googledrive, the new homepage is currently being tested among a small group of Google Drive users. A GIF file shared by the company shows a Home button above My Drive, which currently sits at the top of the left navigation panel. The current layout gives you a list/grid of all documents stored in Drive. You will also find a few suggested documents at the top.
But with the new homepage, Google Drive will provide more suggestions to help you find documents faster. The Home section is divided into two tabs. The “Suggested” tab is where Google will work its magic. It gives you a feed of suggested documents that you can easily filter through to find the right one. You can filter this feed according to the file type, folder, people, location, last modified, and more with the click of a button.
This feed of documents has a “reason suggested” column which explains why Google thinks you might want to open a document. A file or document may be recommended because you or someone in your organization recently opened, edited, or uploaded it. Google will give you a time stamp showing when you last opened or edited and document, along with its location in Drive.
The “Activity” tab, meanwhile, lists all recent activities surrounding a document. You might see access requests, new comments, and more here. Google will let you directly grant or deny an access request from this feed and also check out new comments. An action box lets you select whether to share a document with someone with viewer-only access or more permissions.
Google is still testing this new homepage in Drive
As said earlier, the new homepage for Google Drive on the web isn’t available widely. The company is still testing this redesign. It is seeking feedback from users who have received the new layout. If they don’t like this change, they have the option to switch back to the old layout. But Google may eventually force the new homepage to everyone once it irons out any anomalies or bugs. We will let you know when this change rolls out widely to all Google Drive users.
