Microsoft releases SkyDrive app for Windows Phone 8

After the launch of Windows Phone 8, the absence of the SkyDrive app was quite puzzling as it is a crucial part of Microsoft’s new ecosystem. According to World of Phones, the software giant has finally released the SkyDrive app for Windows Phone 8 devices, just days before the Lumia 920 hits stores. While the phones running on WP8 already had the capability to access SkyDrive through the Office and Pictures hubs, it is now easier to manage and navigate through SkyDrive with the dedicated app. Along with the app, Microsoft has updated the service itself to version 3.0. The app can be downloaded here at the Marketplace.

SkyDrive 3.0 is compatible with Windows Phone 8. Features of the app include the ability to search your SkyDrive files and folder, new settings for photo upload and download size, and updated app icons and visuals.

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?

Now on Windows Phone 8

The Windows Phone 8 SkyDrive app lets you access all of your SkyDrive content including files shared with you, view recently used documents, upload photos or videos from your phone, share your files and photos by sending a link over email or by getting a link you can copy and paste, manage your files, and search your SkyDrive files and folders.

In October, Microsoft announced the availability of the  Office 2013 web apps on SkyDrive and Outlook. The apps comprise Office tools such as the Word Web App, Excel Web app, PowerPoint Web app, and OneNote Web App. Microsoft used feedback obtained from around 750,000 users participating in the preview that started in July this year to modify and tweak the apps into the new versions.

SkyDrive for Windows desktop and OS X got a major facelift in August. With it, SkyDrive.com sported a new, modern design for desktop and tablet browsers, along with features such as instant search, contextual toolbar, thumbnail multi-select, drag-and-drop organisation, and content sorting.

Microsoft has added sorting functionality to its cloud storage so that users can customise and save the sort order for any folder. “As many of you know, Windows Phone users can have all the photos they take on their phones automatically sent to the SkyDrive camera roll folder. I have 1,411 photos in this folder, and it used to be a pain to get to the most recent photo. We now default to sorting by newest to oldest, which should make viewing your camera roll much better,” the blog post states.

The company has streamlined the photo upload path resulting in a faster bulk photo upload experience. SkyDrive for Windows desktop and OS X will also get an update over the course of the week. Based on feedback from users, SkyDrive has been made faster and more efficient for a couple of key scenarios. “We focused on photo uploads and looking for changes in your local SkyDrive folder. As with any performance discussion, ‘your mileage may vary,’ as actual performance depends on a variety of factors including hardware, connection upload/ download speed, network congestion, content type, distance to the service data center, and other factors,” says the blog.