Box released a major update for its Box for Android app Tuesday and is giving free 50GB storage to users who have Box installed in their LG devices.
The update includes a completely redesigned user interface, menus and controls.
"We scoured our app and overhauled every screen - making sure your experience is fast, reliable and enjoyable," writes Box product manager of mobile Simon Tan. We overhauled menus throughout the app, introduced a swipe menu on every item to get to actions even faster, and added touches like a new user tour and information headers on each folder."
Notable among the new features is an updated image gallery that allows you to save bandwidth by previewing thumbnails of photos without having to load the images in full resolution. Box also boasts of a "lightning-fast" document previewer that supports over a hundred file types, including PowerPoint, which has been known to be difficult to work with in terms of previews. The document previewer also allows you to search text within a document.
"We've also added some great features inside the preview experience, including page thumbnails, grid views, full text search within documents, and more," Tan adds.
Box also announced it has expanded its partnership with LG and will be giving away 50GB of cloud storage for one year for new and existing owners of LG's flagship smartphones and tablets living in the U.S., Western Europe and South Korea. New devices will come pre-loaded with the Box app and owners will receive their free storage once they log in to the app.
The revamped Box app is fully integrated with other cloud services by OneCloud and includes a fully native gallery of OneCloud apps. When you preview a file, Box will show up a list of apps that are fully compatible with that file. For example, when you open a Microsoft Word file, Box tells you that you can use OneCloud's business messaging app so you can share your file with your boss or co-workers. Another app that might come up is Documents to Go, a new OneCloud app for Android that lets you edit Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF and other files.
Box is also making available Box for ME, an AppConnect-enabled version of the standard Box app that is useful for IT admins who want to separate their personal information from business data.
"IT admins can deploy Box straight to their employees' devices with AppConnect policy controls including app-specific passcode locks and file saving restrictions," says Tan.
