Microsoft OneDrive for Android Update Brings New Home Screen, Playback for Samsung Motion Photos and 8K Videos

Microsoft OneDrive app for Android has been updated with a new home screen. The new layout shows recently accessed files, files downloaded for offline use, and “On This Day” photos. The experience, however, is slightly different for personal accounts and work/ school accounts. Furthermore, Microsoft has also included support for Samsung Motion Photos and 8K videos. To get the new home experience, users need to have a smartphone with Android version 6.0 or later and OneDrive Android app version 6.21 or later.

According to a blog post by Microsoft, the new OneDrive for Android home experience is available for OneDrive work, school, and home accounts. As per the company, personal OneDrive account users will see three main sections in the updated home screen: recently accessed files, files downloaded for offline use, and “On This Day” photos. Those who have a OneDrive work or school account will see recent files, shared libraries, and offline files.

Microsoft says that the new experience on the OneDrive Android app replaces the previous home screen that showed a root view of users' files. However, they can still navigate to root view by tapping the Files tab that appears beside the Home tab. As mentioned, in order to get the new home experience, users should have smartphones with Android version 6.0 or later and Microsoft OneDrive for Android version 6.21 or later. The new home screen experience is already available on iOS devices.

Microsoft has also announced that it is rolling out playback for Samsung Motion Photos on OneDrive Web and Android app. Samsung smartphone users who save their Samsung Motion Photos on OneDrive will be able to view them in “all their moving glory”. Samsung Motion Photo records several seconds of video leading up to the shutter release (still image) — similar to Live Photos on an iPhone.

Currently, the Samsung Motion Photos playback feature is rolling out worldwide on Microsoft OneDrive app for Android. The playback feature is only supported for OneDrive personal accounts and requires Android version 6.0 or later and OneDrive Android app version 6.23 or later. The feature is not yet supported on Microsoft OneDrive for iOS or OneDrive sync.

Microsoft also says that users will also be able to play Samsung 8K videos on OneDrive. The company is rolling out playback of Samsung 8K videos from Samsung Galaxy S20 and Galaxy S21 series smartphones this month.

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