Following the announcement of the SkyDrive app for Windows and Mac update earlier this morning, another rumor has surfaced regarding what’s coming in the next milestone for SkyDrive. We recently received a tip from our tipster, who wishes to remain anonymous, who managed to obtain documents from several SkyDrive team member’s SkyDrive public folders revealing a brief timeline and features of upcoming SkyDrive releases. (Isn’t it ironic that these details were found on SkyDrive itself?)
According to the documents, it was revealed that the next milestone, which should be Wave 5 M4, will come with an Android app. Microsoft has already released SkyDrive apps for iOS (supporting both iPhone and iPad versions), Windows Phone, and Windows 8, however an official app for Android was never released. This news should make many Android users happy, and one less excuse for users to stick with Dropbox or Google Drive.
Another feature according to the documents is something called “Recycle Bin”. For all we know, it is designed to be a backup option for files stored on SkyDrive. Currently, only Office documents features a versioning feature on SkyDrive, which allow users to retrieve prior versions of their documents. Hotmail also currently features something similar, allowing users to recover deleted email messages. No further details were given regarding this feature, neither do we know if files in the “Recycle Bin” will count towards your storage limit.
Of course, we have yet to verify these rumors, so take this news with a grain of salt for now. If Microsoft sticks to their quarterly update schedule, we do expect Microsoft to release the next update of SkyDrive sometime in late July. What we can confirm is that the upcoming update for SkyDrive will come with a brand new Metro-look (but more on that in a later post). For now, for a taste of what the new Metro-look will look like, check out our previous coverage and screenshots, and stay tuned!