Google will roll out a new “Drive for Desktop” application in the coming weeks, replacing the backup and sync and Drive File Stream clients.

Earlier this year, Google announced plans to unify its Drive File Stream and Backup and Sync apps into a single Google Drive desktop app. The company now says the new sync client will be rolled out “in the coming weeks” and has released additional information on what users can expect from the transition.

To recap, there are currently two desktop sync solutions for using Google Drive: Drive File Stream, for business users, and Backup and Sync, for personal use. The deployment of Google Drive for desktop will consolidate these two clients into a single application. Indeed, some users of Drive File Stream version 45 or later will already see the name change implemented.

Drive for desktop will perform the same functions as the two old apps: giving users access to their cloud-based files and photos right on their desktops, and automatically syncing files to the cloud in the background. From the Google blog post:

We unify these sync clients into the new Desktop Drive, giving users the best and most used features of Backup & Sync and Drive File Stream, including the ability to:

• Upload and sync photos and videos to Google Photos and / or Google Drive
• Sync external storage devices with the cloud, including USB drives and external hard drives
• Mirror Drive files to your desktop, which stores your files on your local device and allows faster access to your content.

Over the next several weeks, macOS and Windows users will see prompts asking them to switch to Drive for desktop, which Google recommends doing before September 2021. After that date, users will see in-app alerts informing them that ‘they will have to make the transition. to continue syncing their files.

More information on the Drive for Desktop transition for business users can be found in the Google Workspace Updates blog post.