Microsoft has all sorts of nice little surprises for the faithful few who are sticking with Windows Phones. This week, Microsoft announced a new file manager app for all mobile devices running on Windows Phone 8.1.
It's certainly not the most exciting app out there, but the aptly called Files file manager can prove to be useful for users who do not wish to dig into a myriad of apps just to find a single video or music file. The new app is right on time. Earlier this month, vice president and Windows Phone team lead Joe Belfiore said on Reddit that Windows will release a new file manager app sometime by the end of May.
"Today, we are releasing the app. It's called Files and it makes it easy and intuitive to manage your files on your devices running Windows Phone 8.1. You can download it from the Windows Phone Store here," Brandon LeBlanc, senior marketing communications manager at Microsoft, writes on the Windows blog.
Files on Windows Phone 8.1 works pretty much like the OneDrive or Photos apps for the same platform. It does not provide the same interface as Windows Explorer on the PC, but it provides a useful all-in-one mechanism to manage files across different folders and storage options.
Users can tap through folders and files in their phone's internal storage or SD card to copy and move the files to different locations. They can also launch files from the app, rename files and folders or delete them as they please. But perhaps the most useful feature of Files is the ability to share files and folders stored on the phone to co-workers, friends and families who also have Files installed on their devices.
The app, however, is not perfect. Files does not integrate particularly well with other apps, such as OneDrive or the Office apps. For example, when users try to save a file on Office, the app does not show Files as a target location for saving. Also, files downloaded into the phone from OneDrive will not show up on Files unless users use the Save As function to save the files in one of the storage options. Other users have also complained that they cannot access Files when they want to send an email with an attachment using the Mail app.
Hopefully, the feedback will fuel a slew of updates that will make Files an even better file manager in the future.
