Google Drive for Android

The Google Drive app for Android gives you quick access to everything you keep in Google's cloud storage service. Upload, create, and share your files and photos through Drive.

Pros

Free: With a Google account, you get 15GB of cloud storage for free. Jump to 100GB for $19.99 per year and 1TB for $99.99 per year. Gmail messages count toward the cap. Photos larger than 16MP and videos greater than 1080p do, too; to avoid this limitation on photos and videos, head to the Google Photos website. From the main menu, select Settings, and choose High Quality (free unlimited storage). The slightly slimmer files won't eat into your storage budget. (Note: If you use one of Google's Pixel phones or an Android One phone, Google waves the size limit.)

Store Your Google Docs: Google's collection of productivity apps -- Docs, Sheets, and Slides -- takes advantage of Drive to store their related files. Through the Drive app, you can scroll through files and folders to find the document you are looking for, or just search for it.

Collaborate with colleagues: With Drive, you can share a text file, spreadsheet, or presentation by choosing Share & Export and adding people by name or email address. Collaborators can edit files, add comments, and address comments made by others. You can view collaborator edits in real time.

Handles Office files: With the Google Docs apps, you can import Microsoft Office files, convert to Google Docs files, and store them in Drive. Or with Google's Office Compatibility Mode (OCM), you can edit Office files in their native formats or save and export Google Docs files to an Office format.

Find your photos in Drive: At one time, Google Drive had a Google Photos folder that let you view images you stored in the cloud. But it's gone now. If you miss having all your Google photos and files in one place, however, you can add the folder back. In the app, go to Settings and then turn on Auto Add to put your Google Photos in a drive folder. And if you're fine with the folder gone, you can access your photos from the Google Photos app.

Cons

Lacks enterprise-level features: While great for individual users and small workgroups, the Google Drive apps lack some high-end capabilities you can find in cloud services designed for business uses, such as more robust admin and security tools.

Limited control over encryption: Google encrypts what you store on its cloud servers, but you have limited control over how your data gets encrypted. For more control, check out Cryptomator, which lets you encrypt and store files on Google Drive.

Bottom Line

With the Google Drive app for Android, you can upload, edit, and share files stored in the cloud. While it lacks enterprise-level tools, Google's service is perfect for individuals and small workgroups who want to collaborate on documents.