Differential uploads have been added to Google Drive for desktop on Mac and Windows, enabling speedier file sync.
“Drive for desktop will now upload only the parts of the file that changed” as a result of this upgrade. Although Google doesn’t specify, this pertains to editing “large” files.
This functionality, which has received a lot of requests, will lead to “much faster Drive syncs.” All Google Drive users should be able to access this.
Similar quality-of-life enhancements were provided to the Drive website by Google last month: “you can now watch videos the moment you upload them to Drive on web.”
Last but not least, this week Google Drive added Gemini to the PDF overlay file previewer. You can “seamlessly switch between multiple files” and use the side panel to change and summarize content. In the upper-right corner, tap the Gemini icon to begin.
“With this update, the default behavior will open a file in the overlay file previewer.” This is not the same as completely viewing a PDF, which gained Gemini in July. You can change the default behavior for PDF opening in your Drive settings if you would rather have it open in a new tab by default.
The following tiers of Google Drive offer Gemini:
- Gemini Business
- Gemini Enterprise
- Gemini Education
- Gemini Education Premium
- Google One AI Premium
