Microsoft Prepares OneDrive Overhaul With AI-Powered Photo Tools

Microsoft is preparing a massive redesign of the desktop OneDrive app. Over the coming months, the program will see improvements to photo management, a handful of new AI-powered editing tools, and better sharing options. The new OneDrive desktop app will shift away from the small taskbar flyout and become a fully featured application, similar to its mobile version.
A recent post on the Microsoft OneDrive Blog says the new version of OneDrive will have a dedicated gallery view for cloud photos and a “People” view, which will help identify and organize faces within images. Users can name people appearing in their photos and keep their collections sorted as such, similar to Google Photos.
OneDrive on Windows will also work with local photos, letting users edit and save their images locally or on Microsoft’s cloud. Several AI-driven tools will be added, including slideshows, a photo-aware chatbot, and editing features that clean up blurry or duplicate shots and convert photos into animated styles.
The “Moments” tab has already started rolling out to mobile users, giving fresh access to older images and “on this day” memories.
Microsoft also has a big update for document sharing. The new “hero link” means users can simply copy a document’s URL to share it. The Verge notes that this eases the access request process and makes sharing as smooth as it is on Google Docs.
Quite a few features are also rolling out on iOS and Android, and the company promises more options will arrive over the coming months.
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