Microsoft OneDrive Blog

9 MIN READ

Welcome to the New Era of Microsoft OneDrive: AI, Productivity, and Memories at Your Fingertips

jasmo

Microsoft

Oct 08, 2024

OneDrive is your gateway to seamlessly managing files, photos, and memories across work, home, and everywhere in between. Trusted by 94% of Fortune 500 companies millions of small businesses, and countless individuals, OneDrive is transforming how the world collaborates, stores, and connects.

At today’s OneDrive event , we unveiled a powerful lineup of new features designed to help you work smarter, stay organized, and relive life’s best moments – all through the magic of AI. Whether you’re an IT Pro managing enterprise-grade compliance or a parent organizing family memories, OneDrive has you covered.

Let’s take a closer look at what’s new.

View the event on-demand

Copilot Agents: your custom AI assistant

One of the most exciting innovations shared today is that Copilot Agents are coming to OneDrive! Think of Copilot Agents as a custom-built AI assistant, designed by you and tailored to meet your specific needs. Here’s how they work:

Create Your Own AI Assistant
With Copilot Agents, you can gather relevant files, documents, and data into a powerful, shareable assistant that knows everything about your project. They’re simple to create. You can even customize it with a unique name and icon, making it instantly recognizable across your workspace.

Automate and Simplify Repetitive Tasks
Imagine you’re organizing a conference, and you need to repeatedly provide the same information to various stakeholders. With a Copilot Agent, you can automate this process by directing it to respond to common requests, like "show me the event agenda" or "summarize the latest budget figures." This custom assistant works for you around the clock, simplifying your workload and ensuring your team has the information they need at their fingertips.

Shareable and Scalable
Once you’ve created your Copilot Agent, you can share it with your entire team. It works across platforms—whether in Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, or SharePoint—and can instantly become a valuable resource for everyone involved. This ability to scale the impact of your work will fundamentally change how you manage projects and team collaboration.

Collaboration at a New Level
The true power of Copilot Agents lies in their flexibility. Just like any other file, you can copy, share, and organize them with ease. Need to onboard a new team member? Instead of sending them multiple links, emails, and files, you can simply share your Copilot Agent in a Teams chat. With one click, your teammate can start interacting with the agent, asking questions, and getting real-time answers. This transforms how teams collaborate, making knowledge transfer seamless and more efficient.

Copilot Agents will be a game-changer for how you work, helping you focus on what matters most while your custom AI takes care of the repetitive, time-consuming tasks.

But the news doesn’t stop there, let’s get into more exciting OneDrive innovations.

Your OneDrive at work: faster, smarter, and the best way to collaborate

OneDrive is your unified files app across the entire Microsoft 365 ecosystem—integrated seamlessly with Office, Teams, SharePoint, and Windows. And today, we showed off even more capabilities to help you work smarter, faster, and more collaboratively than ever before.

Lightning-fast performance, online and offline: We’ve supercharged OneDrive’s web experience. You can now view, edit, and organize your files with speed—even when you’re offline. From browsing large libraries to filtering documents, everything is faster, smoother, and more responsive.

Smarter search experience to easily find what matters: Our improved search experience is a game-changer. With new filter controls and more detailed results, find the exact file or folder faster and easier—whether it’s stored in your OneDrive, a shared library, or a folder from a teammate. This update is rolling out now and will be available to commercial customers by the end of 2024.

Bring vivid customization to your workflow with Colored Folders: In a world of endless digital content, a little color goes a long way. OneDrive is now extending support for colored folders to Windows File Explorer, allowing you to personalize and organize your files with vibrant hues. Available starting today, this feature is all about helping you stay organized with a touch of creativity.

Updated Document Libraries: Coming mid-next year, we’ll be making significant improvements to the document library experience. Bringing OneDrive’s flexibility and speed directly into your most-used collaborative spaces. We’re improving the overall performance and reliability, making it easier and faster to navigate, switch to and create custom views, and filter large data sets.

Revamped sharing: Collaboration is at the heart of productivity, and we’ve made it easier than ever to share files. You’ll now see who’s working on a document in real time, and you can apply expiration dates to sharing links for extra control and security.

Intelligence with Copilot

Today marks a new milestone with the arrival of Copilot in OneDrive, available now for all commercial customers. Copilot transforms the way you interact with your files, offering AI-powered capabilities that boost productivity like never before.

Copilot Actions available now:

Summarize files quickly: Faster extraction of key information in OneDrive is a productivity booster. With Copilot in OneDrive, you can summarize one or multiple files in your OneDrive web app without opening each file. You can also generate an FAQ from a document to use or share as a resource. For example, summarize new documents that have been shared with you or easily summarize notes right before a meeting all with one-click!

Effortless File Comparison: Locating the right data or understanding the differences between multiple files is time-consuming. Now, with Copilot you can select up to five files―even mixing formats such as Word docs, PowerPoints, and PDFs―and quickly see the differences across all the files, helping you make decisions faster.

Get answers on specific files: Have a question about a document, or need to get quick insights before a meeting? Ask Copilot a question on any document without having to open a single file. Get the information you need from the documents you choose, gaining valuable insights in seconds.

More to come in 2025

Soon, you will be able to get meeting recaps directly from OneDrive to generate detailed highlights, key points, and even organizing them into actionable insights. Also, you will soon have the ability to convert files into presentations-turning Word documents into detailed PowerPoint presentations!

There’s a lot more we are working on for Copilot in OneDrive coming in 2025. Stay tuned for more updates and news in the coming months!

Secure and easy to manage

At the heart of OneDrive’s evolution is our commitment to making it secure and easy to manage, particularly for IT professionals who rely on it to safeguard their organization’s data.

Site Policy Comparison Report : Managing thousands of files and ensuring they meet compliance standards is no small feat. That’s why we’re introducing the AI-driven site policy comparison report. With a few clicks, you can identify similar sites and which policies they are missing, to ensure your organization remains compliant. Will be in public preview end of 2024

Microsoft Graph Data Connect (MGDC): We’ve improved our OneDrive Sync Health Reports by integrating them with MGDC, allowing admins to export data into Power BI or Excel for customized reports. Whether you’re monitoring backup errors or inactive sites, OneDrive gives you the tools you need to stay in control. Now available in public preview.

Restricted Content Discoverability: Security is key when deploying AI tools. With our new Restricted Content Discoverability (RCD), files in libraries that have this policy configured will not appear in Copilot-generated results, ensuring the right level of access and control. Will be in public preview end of 2024.

File-Level M365 Archive on SharePoint: Soon, you’ll be able to archive individual files within your SharePoint Document Libraries that haven’t been accessed in years, making it easier to declutter and manage storage. Archiving doesn’t mean goodbye—archived files remain searchable and can be reactivated at any time. This feature will be in private preview early 2025.

While work is ever so important to your day-day, living in the moments, at home with family, friends, and loved ones is just as important. We are excited to announce a few updates to your personal OneDrive experience!

A refreshed OneDrive mobile app for all your photo memories

While OneDrive excels at work, we know that it’s just as essential for your personal life. That’s why we’re excited to announce a OneDrive mobile app that brings your favorite memories to life.

A refreshed, photos-first mobile experience- The updated mobile app puts your photos front and center, with easy-to-navigate albums, people, and favorites. This redesign is rolling out to Android users starting today through the coming weeks, with iOS users receiving the update in November.

Enhanced photo search- It can be hard to find specific photos in a sea of memories. We’ve upgraded our search capabilities to let you search how you speak. OneDrive’s new natural language search lets you type what you remember—like "Sophia and her dog on a boat"— and instantly find the photos you’re looking for. This search functionality has begun rolling out to Microsoft 365 subscribers, and we plan to roll out to all users by Summer 2025.

More memories at your fingertips- We’re expanding the types of memories OneDrive surfaces, from special trips to personal milestones. With AI working behind the scenes, your most meaningful moments are always within reach.

Simple photo sharing-OneDrive helps you easily share with others, even if they do not have a OneDrive account. With one tap, you can send full-resolution photos directly through your favorite messaging apps—no links or logins required.

You can download the mobile app today and back up your phone’s photos in OneDrive to get the most from our new app on day one.

New ways to streamline your photo storage

The best way to enjoy our new photo experience is by backing up your lifetime of photos OneDrive. You can easily turn on camera roll backup from within the app, and once enabled, OneDrive will automatically back up new photos you take with your phone.

For those who have older photos in other cloud services from previous devices, we recommend utilizing our new File Import features on

Android and iOS. Now, you can easily import photos, videos, and documents from Google Drive, Google Photos, and Dropbox.

Need even more storage for your memories? No problem. We will also be releasing new 5 TB and 10 TB storage tiers beyond the current 2 TB limit for Microsoft 365 Personal and Family customers by the end of the year.

Looking ahead: the future of OneDrive

OneDrive will continue to lead the way in enabling you to more successfully manage your files, collaborate, and relive memories. At work, at home, and across your devices, we’re committed to making OneDrive the most powerful and intuitive file management solution available.

Let's take a peek into what's coming next.

A seamless photos experience, everywhere- We’re bringing the stunning AI-powered photo management experience from our mobile app to every OneDrive platform, including your PC, web browser, and Mac. Whether you’re searching for a specific memory or reliving a cherished moment, OneDrive’s new photo experience will put your photos front and center across all the platforms you use.

Microsoft Designer integration: edit anywhere-Imagine taking a family photo on a trip, only to realize later that something in the background detracts from the moment. With Microsoft Designer directly integrated into OneDrive, you’ll be able to edit your photos effortlessly—whether it’s removing a distraction, changing the background, or adding text. We will be bringing these capabilities across OneDrive platforms, allowing you to make changes easily, wherever you are.

Personalized views -Organizing your digital life can be overwhelming, but OneDrive’s AI is here to help. OneDrive will create personalized views for you, automatically grouping your files and photos based on —whether it’s family moments, work documents, or your favorite hobbies. This dynamic organization will make it easier than ever to find exactly what you need, when you need it.

Copilot coming to Windows, Mac, and Document Libraries for Work-Copilot is expanding across all the critical places you work with your files, including SharePoint and document libraries, as well as Windows File Explorer and macOS Finder. With powerful AI features like Q&A, Catch Up, and one-click actions such as file summarization and comparison, Copilot will help you streamline your workflow across platforms. No matter where you work, Copilot will be there to support you.

The Next Era of OneDrive Starts Today

The team and I are excited to see how these new features will enable your work, your memories, and your life. With faster search, smarter collaboration, and a more intuitive photo experience, OneDrive is more than cloud storage—it’s the future of productivity and connection.

Here are some additional resources for you to explore: