Google and Dropbox had announced over a year ago that they would work together to make their cloud storage services play nice with each other. The integration that was announced last summer is now switching things up a notch. It’s now possible for Dropbox Business customers to participate in an open beta program which allows them to edit Google Docs within Dropbox itself.
Those who take part in this open beta program will be able to make changes to Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides natively in Dropbox. The execution here isn’t all that different from the Microsoft Office + Dropbox integration that has been out there for a few years.
When users are in Dropbox’s web view, they can find the “create new file” button for Docs, Sheets, and Slides alongside the button for new Microsoft Office documents. If they’re logged in with a Google account, clicking on the relevant button will open the familiar Google Docs interface.
The only way to really know that the interface is not being accessed through Google itself will be the fact that the URL will be a Dropbox domain instead of one owned by Google. This functionality is only being opened up to Dropbox Business customers today and the company says that it does plan on general availability for later this year.