Moped is updating the Web version of its business-focused messaging platform today with deeper Dropbox integration, giving users the ability to select and share files stored through the cloud-based storage solution without ever leaving the site.
The feature was rolled out to iOS users last Friday, but the expanded functionality on the Web should cater to a much wider group of Moped’s growing enterprise userbase.
After logging in from the Moped site and connecting their existing Dropbox account, users can choose any file that they’ve previously stored in the cloud. It’s a simple pop-up window, but the interface is clean and surprisingly quick to navigate. Users select the necessary file, hit ‘Choose’ and a share link is then created automatically in the message field.
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A secondary function, available both as a shortcut in each conversation window and as a secondary button in the Dropbox pop-up window, gives users the ability to upload and share new files from a local drive too.
Dropbox has taken great strides to remove some of the friction involved with uploading and sharing files through its cloud-based storage platform. While it’s certainly easier than ever before, diving into the company’s site and various native apps can still feel like a bit of a chore. Moped’s integration, meanwhile, removes practically all of the hassle and actually accelerates collaborating with colleagues and other users.
Moped launched a Mac desktop app late last week to coexist with its iOS, Android and Web offerings. Dropbox is integrated into all of them at a basic level, but the file chooser is unique to the iOS and Web apps for now. Moped founder and CEO Schuyler Deerman confirmed the new feature would be rolling out to its remaining platforms later this summer.
While it’s not on the company’s immediate roadmap, Deerman is also interested in updating Moped to support additional cloud-based storage providers outside of Dropbox. “I’m sure at some point in the future, our idea of being a platform and also taking a leaf from Dropbox, we want to integrate with more than just Dropbox, because a lot of our users are going to be Box users, Google Drive, or similar. But for now, we’re focused on Dropbox.”
If you haven’t stumbled across it before, Moped is a clean, simple messaging service that’s geared towards small businesses and teams. The startup raised $1 million in seed funding last June, subsequently updating the design, branding and overall functionality. These days it looks and feels far more refined, featuring the standard conversation tree on the right-hand side for private individual and group messaging.
Moped is also launching single sign-on with Google later today. “Forty percent of the accounts inside Moped are Gmail addresses and so we see a lot of people using Google apps these days for work and a lot of our individual users are coming from there,” Deerman said. “So we want to make signing up a lot easier for them.”
➤ Moped
Image Credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images
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