has started rolling out a new “Activity” feed for its
Drive cloud storage
service. This tab will be available on the web version of
Google Drive
and will show “all pending access requests, recent comments, and approvals.” In a blog post, Google states that the Activity tab will allow users to quickly see recent file activity and then take action directly on the page.
Google Drive Activity feed: Availability
Google Drive’s Activity tab will be rolled out over the coming weeks and will be “available to all
Google Workspace
customers.” The page will be helpful for Google Drive users who have to go through a lot of file-related actions. This feature is expected to be more unified than email and/or push notifications.
How will it work
The view mode, which can be accessed from the navigation menu in the web version of Google Drive, will show all of the recent activities. Here, users will be able to see all new comments, file approvals, and pending access requests in one place. This will reduce the odds of users missing out on any activity on their Google Drive.
In the left column, users will be able to find the file name which will be accompanied by a summary of recent activities. This will include different activities of other users such as who did what and when. This column will be further divided into Access requests (if there are any), Approvals, and Recent comments.
On the right, there are buttons to Manage access (grant permissions), Review recent activity, and Open comments for further engagement.
The comments section will on the Activities tab will be available for 30 days and will only display if you meet one of the following conditions:
- The user needs to be subscribed to notifications
- Active participation in a specific comment thread, or
- If a user has been mentioned in a comment within that particular file.
This page will stand alone in the sidebar which will be positioned between "Priority" and "Workspaces."
