The new Google Drive update is dumb

Elijah Claude
4 min readMay 13, 2018

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I sent an email to tell them as much too…

Hello [Google Drive person]!

This may be a shot in the dark and you'll never read this, much less respond or change anything... But I am just so bothered by the new Drive update that I had to try to reach out anyways.

I really like Drive. I find it so very awesome and useful and amazing that we have this sort of capability, free of charge, and well executed. It makes me so much more productive, and its even a joy to use! The UX flow was so good that I rarely ever even noticed it.

Until now.

Now, when I go to Drive, instead of being able to open a doc and start working... I can't! I can only look at it like its some useless pdf through Drive. Now, I have to go out the Drive app, then open up the separate Docs app, just to make a new document or edit one I already had.
I never liked using the Doc app, because the app was not well synced to Drive, documents didn't show up where I expected them to (ie didn't always show up in the Drive if made through Docs directly) and didn't have the folders I made in Drive.

But now, I am forced to use Docs directly instead of just being able to create a doc directly through Drive, in the folder I want it to go. Having to create a doc through the Doc app means having to Move it to the correct folder *every single time* that I need it to be in a specific folder.

Such a small change in the UX has turned Drive into a chore instead of a marvel of human progress and productivity.

Now, instead of appreciating your UX design every time I open up a doc, and remember how I used to have to mess around with Word or Notes,.. Now I'm forced to wonder if there's a better app out there, because anything is better than having to juggle apps from the same service!

Perhaps I'm being melodramatic here....
I know I am.

But this really hits hard for me and I hope this was just a silly 'test' or something...

Please bring back the ability to make and edit docs (and Slides, Sheets) directly through Drive. I don’t see why it was changed in the first place. Were people really complaining about being able to conveniently manage their entire Google experience through just one app instead of 4? Is there any way I can be opted out of that crowd, …and this update?
In short,
1) Retain the ability to open up a document through Drive and edit it (I assume it simply auto-loaded the Docs app instead of forcing me to open it myself)
2) Retain the ability to open a new document through Drive (I assume it worked as described above)
3) At the very least, display all my folders from Drive inside the Docs (+ Sheets, Slides) app so that I can open up a document in the correct folder

Thank you for your time and all that you do.

Best,
Elijah

I truly sent this… first thing in the morning…

Why am I so initiative about this??

Its not that important, its not going to change actually harm me, and its likely not going to be changed back… especially not from me.

But I felt driven to do something…

Because I can do something.

The World Is Big, But Small Changes Matter

There are so many things in this world that feel like they’re out of our hands, that makes us (me) feel powerless to change.

I suppose that's why we don't try very hard as a people to change those things we see as wrong… because so many of us feel like we make no impact, that we're impotent or invisible.

I may not be able to do anything about the state of the government or injustice overseas or even police brutality against people like me; I feel powerless to the stratified class system and incapable of speeding up tech or my ability to earn money faster to get to a comfortable lifestyle quickly.

But what I can do is send out an email. I know how to find contact information and how to reach out to companies. I give and share feedback all the time… So what if Google is a big company? I contact companies all the time, in both of my jobs.

I've learned to realize that companies, no matter how big, are still just made of people, they're not monoliths.

I know what to do. So I know there Is something that I can do.

Even if nothing comes of it… At least I can feel better for having finally done something to address at least one of the many exogenous problems in my life.

Even though this problem is ultimately not as important as the others… its an itch that I can actually scratch (or apply ointment to… wouldn't want it to spread;)

Even when marked as a fail, we have grown and learned for latter battles.

😥I don’t even know where the time went… just looked up and it was way past midnight… smh

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