Google Drive will soon make it easier to track down files

Google Drive’s categorization is a bit messy at times. The company has taken notice of this, and might be making changes soon. According to TheSpAndroid, code within the Google Drive app could hint at a better means of categorizing files. These changes are expected to come to the Android and iOS apps in addition to the web version of Drive.

What’s new for Google Drive categorization?

Google Drive currently has the ability to sort files into folders, much like most operating systems. People using Google Workspace also have the option to assign labels to their files. Drive will be introducing a new “Categories” feature to sort files. This feature is somewhat similar to labels, but there are a few key differences.

For starters, labels can only be created by admins. Secondly, labels are only available to Google Workspace users. The new categories will be available to anyone using Google Drive. Like labels, multiple categories can be assigned to a single file. This seems to be the major selling point of these new categories. They are available to everyone and work sort of like labels. Unlike labels, there are a select number of predefined categories. 12, in fact, and they are Auto, Banking, Expenses, Home, IDS, Insurance, Medical, Pets, School, Taxes, Travel, and Work.

The new categories encompass a wide range of daily use cases. Their addition also means searching for files in Drive will become much easier. Especially with the ability to assign a file to more than one category.

The upcoming features were discovered in new code

TheSpAndroid discovered the possibility of these new features while reviewing the Drive app’s code back in January. Users will be able to quickly sort files by category from the Home tab. Putting a file into one or more categories is also pretty straightforward. Just tap the three dots in front of a file to open up a menu. From this menu, users will need to go to a “Manage Categories” submenu.

This submenu will feature all the categories mentioned above, in that specific order. Here, users can toggle one or more categories before exiting the menu. Quite simple and efficient, this feature should see users sorting their files more effectively in the future.

Google’s online offerings like Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Keep have gained massive popularity in recent years. Because of the availability of a free tier, many users opt for Google’s services overpaying for a subscription to Microsoft Office. This also makes it much easier to share files; as all users need to do is share a link.