Dropbox: the smart workspace?

The smart workspace comes to life with today’s launch of Dropbox Spaces, the evolution of the shared folder into a collaborative workspace. Dropbox Spaces is now part of the new Dropbox, announced earlier this year, and also includes new features developed through the company’s machine intelligence platform, DBXi. In addition, the company added several new collaboration features across Dropbox surfaces including desktop, mobile, and web apps.  

“We’re building the smart workspace because we need technology that helps us quiet the noise, rather than contributing to it,” said Drew Houston, CEO, Dropbox. “This starts with the launch of Dropbox Spaces, which brings together your most important content and tools into one organized place, so you can stay focused and in sync with your team.”

“It’s increasingly evident that modern knowledge workers are bombarded with needlessly distracting notifications that stop them from getting work done,” said analyst Chris Marsh, Research Director, Workforce Productivity and Compliance, 451 Research. “451 Research’s survey data shows that only a third of employees are very satisfied with their work applications. The sheer volume of apps they need to use is the biggest overall pain point. Dropbox’s new smart workspace will help address this issue by combining cloud content, platform services, machine intelligence and a collaborative user experience in one central location.”

The company also announced that its new desktop app—previously available in early access—is now generally available and rolling out starting today. The desktop app also includes Dropbox Spaces and several new features, highlighted below.

Be organized

New features across the Dropbox workspace that support better organization include:

• Image search that uses machine intelligence to let users find image files including jpg, jpeg, png and gif, by searching for the contents of the images. Now rolling out to Dropbox Professional users; coming soon for Dropbox Business.
• File previews that allow users to see files such as AutoCAD in high fidelity using Dropbox on the desktop, even without source applications installed.
• Paper integration in the Dropbox file system, which makes it possible to create, store, and access Paper docs from Dropbox. The release is available to new Paper users starting today, and will be available to existing users soon.
• Search across overviews, allowing users to see search results from overview descriptions.
• Coming soon:
  • Dropbox Binder, a new way for users to document projects, processes, and knowledge by creating a centralized source of truth for teams across any type of content, will be released in beta in the coming months.

Stay focused

The Dropbox workspace now includes a For you tab within Dropbox in the Windows system tray and macOS menu bar. It uses machine intelligence to surface personalized suggestions and details to make users’ work lives easier. As with other DBXi features, the For you tab gets smarter over time the more users interact with it. New smart features include:

• File and folder suggestions that help users jump into the content they need, when they need it.
• Calendar integration that surfaces relevant and timely meeting attachments and meeting notes templates. 
• Team highlights that show the most relevant team activity highlights in one central location.
• Coming soon:
  • People pages that enable users to find relevant content and stay up to date with highlights of team members, including recent file activity. Users can also start communicating with team members, right from their people pages within the desktop app. People pages will begin rolling out in the coming months.

Get in sync

New integrations and features to help teams stay coordinated have also been added to the workspace, including:

• HelloSign extension that enables users to sign documents with just a few clicks using newly designed HelloSign features built into Dropbox.
• Recent activity view in the new Dropbox desktop app that shows the latest file activity and comments at a glance, right alongside content.
• Coming soon:
  • Dropbox Transfer, which allows users to quickly and securely send large files up to 100 GB, is now available in beta for individuals, and early access for teams.
  • Trello integration that allows users to easily add Dropbox content to a Trello card, in addition to being able to preview, see file activity, and edit Dropbox files directly in Trello. The integration will be available later this year.
  • Slack channel mapping that allows users to connect Slack channels to Dropbox folders, automatically syncing the files within channels directly to Dropbox, will roll out early next year.
  • Instant Zoom meetings feature that allows users to start instant Zoom meetings from Dropbox. Once the meetings end, recordings and transcripts can be automatically saved in Dropbox. The new feature will roll out early next year.

Simplify team management

The company also released several features for IT administrators to help businesses ensure they’re delivering a secure and agile work environment. New features include:

• Enterprise console that provides centralized, org-wide visibility and oversight for IT.
  • Console also now enables settings management at instance-level, and the ability to see all team and member activity in Dropbox, including cloud content stored in Dropbox.
• Quick actions gives admins shortcuts to easily execute remediation on certain activities such as deleting links or restoring items. 
• Coming soon:
  • Dropbox also announced a new strategic partnership with BetterCloud, with integration enhancements coming later this year. The integration will empower teams to efficiently and securely deploy, manage, and govern Dropbox at work, which will include orchestration and data loss protection capabilities.
  • Data governance features to reduce risk and help companies meet compliance measures through tools that let administrators retain file versions for up to 10 years and export them for e-discovery. New data governance features are available in private beta now, and will be rolling out more broadly in the coming months.