You can now comment on Google Drive files without opening them in other apps

Google is expanding the way people can comment on Google Drive files. Users can now make comments right from previews inside Drive, as opposed to having to open them in Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides. This is great because it’s fewer tabs and fewer apps, both of which are wthings I’d prefer. You can highlight lines in a file and make comments like you would on a Google Doc, and those comments will follow through in individual apps, too, like Microsoft Office applications. So if you comment on a Drive file, or even assign a task or mention a co-worker, those notes will follow the file wherever it goes.

In its blog post on the new feature, Google stresses that this feature is the fruit of its relationship with Microsoft. It also notes that users can already download a Drive plug-in to make it easier to insert Drive files into Outlook emails. Still, Microsoft wants to lure Google Drive users to its own cloud service: OneDrive. Yesterday, the company announced a promotion that lets corporate customers of competing enterprise software suites from Box, Dropbox, and Google switch to OneDrive with Microsoft covering the bill until a business pays off its existing contract. (It’s capped at three years.) But it doesn’t seem like Microsoft is willing to totally sever its relationship with Google just to win over cloud customers. Now, both Google and Office users can be satisfied and work together. Harmony’s nice.