Dropbox unveils video app, updates AI tools and web interface for new era of work

Dropxbox is debuting a host of updates to its platform at its Work in Progress user conference in New York this week — including the launch of a new all-in-one video tool, a website redesign, and enhancements to Dropbox Dash and Dropbox AI — as well as revamping its subscription plans.

The updates are part of the Dropbox’s mission to design tools that power a new era of distributed work, the company says.

“Our digital environments were never designed to be our primary work spaces. People are experiencing information overload and disjointed workflows at unprecedented levels, leading to a waste of brain power on ‘work about work’,” said Drew Houston, co-founder and CEO of Dropbox, in a news release Tuesday.

According to Dropbox, over 1.5 billion videos get uploaded to its platform every year, which previously led to the company rolling out video tools to Dropbox Capture and Dropbox Replay. In order to further improve customers’ video experience, Dropbox is launching Dropbox Studio, a new video collaboration tool that supports the entire video process by providing a centralized page for users to access, create, edit, review, approve, and publish high-quality videos.

New editing capabilities include trimming and splitting content, alongside the ability to remove filler words like “um” and “ah” with one click. Furthermore, AI-powered features allow customers to edit videos by modifying their transcripts, while time-stamped comments make it simpler to resolve feedback in one place. Dropbox Studio also provides users with a way to post videos directly to Facebook or Instagram.

Dropbox Studio will be available in the coming weeks to select customers in alpha in English.

Redesigned web experience and subscription plans

In addition to Dropbox Studio, Dropbox has also unveiled a redesigned web interface that allows users to get work done without ever leaving Dropbox.

The redesign offers an improved way for customers to organize their content, collaborate with team members, and complete their most critical tasks with new features that includes an updated left navigation bar and an expandable folder tree that allows users direct access to content.

A new action bar sits across the browser page to let customers record their screen, edit PDFs, upload files, create folders, get signatures, or send and track documents, while redesigned file previews make it easier to edit images, videos, and PDFs.

Dropbox is also updating its subscription plans, which are available to customers from today. Users on existing plans will automatically get the new interface in the coming weeks and months.

Dropbox Essentials is aimed at self-employed professionals for a cost of $22/month per user for monthly subscribers; $18/month per user for annual subscribers.

Dropbox Business is built for teams and includes everything in the Essentials plan along with branded signature requests, pooled storage among team members, external sharing controls and reporting, and an admin console to manage teams. Dropbox Business plan is $24/month per user for monthly subscribers; $20/month per user for annual subscribers.

Finally, the Dropbox Business Plus is for larger teams looking for more storage and enhanced security features. In addition to what’s included in the Business plan, Business Plus offers the ability to transfer up to 250GB, one year of version history and recovery, as well as new security and notification features. This plan is priced at $32/month per user for monthly subscribers; $26/month per user for annual subscribers.

Updates to Dropbox Dash and Dropbox AI

Four months after first unveiling two new AI-powered products, Dropbox Dash and Dropbox AI, the company has announced several updates to both tools.

Dropbox Dash — an AI-powered universal search tool designed to connect tools, content and apps via a single search bar — is now available to download in open beta and includes enhancements that improve search functionality and help customers get answers.

Dash now supports search by keywords and semantic search, which provides more contextually relevant search results, and will use generative AI to gather and summarize relevant info from connected apps, files, and content to answer questions asked by customers.

Dropbox AI is a tool that offers summarization capabilities to provide users with an overview of large documents, videos, contracts, and meeting recordings.

Customers can now ask questions and summarize content across their entire Dropbox account, with Dropbox AI sifting through content to pull up answers and relevant files, along with a brief summary of each file, to help people find what they need faster. Additionally, Dropbox AI can now use natural language processing to understand prompts like “show me photos from my photoshoot yesterday.”

Finally, customers can now manage what AI features are enabled in account settings, giving them more control over their use of AI in Dropbox.

Dropbox AI updates are in alpha to select customers now, with broader availability coming soon, the company said. Customers can obtain information on early access at the Dropbox Early Access page.