A Simpler Sharing Experience on OneDrive for Business

Business and education users around the world depend on OneDrive to get their work done, and a big part of that involves collaborating with colleagues. We are making refinements to the sharing experience on the web to simplify the two most common tasks that people do when sharing files: 1) sending a link via email and 2) copying a link to the clipboard. First release customers will see this change starting in mid-August with full rollout expected by mid-September.

When selecting the “Email link”* or “Get a link” command for a file or folder the user will be presented with a simplified interface allowing them to type in an email recipient and message or copy the link. They are also presented with an easy to read permissions summary in blue text.

If needed the user can click this to bring up the Permissions pane and make adjustments.

The full set of permissions options available include:

• Who can access the link.
  • Anyone: The link works for anyone who receives it, just like an email attachment. Use this when you’re sharing and want to optimize for ease-of-use.
  • Only people in your organization: The link requires recipients to sign-in to prove they’re a member of your company or school. Use this for sharing content that needs to stay internal to your organization.
  • Only specific people: The link can only be opened by the people you specify. Use this for sharing content that needs to stay private among a subset of people you’ve identified, both in and outside  your organization. This type of link was previously called a “restricted link”.
• What they can do with the link.
  • View
  • View and edit
• How long they can use the link. For links made available to Anyone, an expiration duration can be selected by the user.

As always, the new sharing experience respects all IT sharing and access policies that are in place, so users will be able to get their work done while complying with the practices established by their IT administrators.

*Note: As part of this feature rollout, the "Share" command will appear as "Share link" or "Email link" for some users. This is expected behavior and a part of our validation and fine-tuning process. Before rollout is complete the finalized text will be deployed to all users.