• by Ray Schultz , March 1, 2018

Dropbox, the cloud-based content storage firm, is partnering with Google Cloud to integrate its collaboration platform with G Suite productivity tools and create a unified home for content, the firm announced on Thursday. 

Users will be able to create, open and edit files that are stored within Dropbox, including Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, the company says. 

In addition, the firms will work together to develop integrated tools, including Dropbox for Gmail Add-Ons. Gmail users will be able to generate Dropbox file links from directly within Gmail, the companies stated.

Account holders can also view metadata on Dropbox content via Gmail. This includes the date created, and when it was last saved and accessed. 

In addition, the alliance will also lead to integration between Dropbox and Google Hangouts Chat. This will facilitate searching, sharing and previewing Dropbox files in Google Hangouts, the company noted.

These integrations will be available in the second half of this year, Dropbox adds.  

The objective of the partnership is to enable Dropbox users to “work across devices with the tools they love,” states Tony Lee, vice president of engineering at Dropbox. This will lead to “a unified home for content and the conversations around it,” says Lee.

Ritcha Ranjan, director, product management at Google Cloud, adds that “our goal is to make G Suite accessible no matter what tools you bring to work.”

Dropbox, which has 500 million registered users in 180 countries, announced an IPO last week. It hopes to raise $500 million, according to Market Watch.