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Google’s Files Go hits 30 million users and is getting a new name

Google’s Files Go hits 30 million users and is getting a new name

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Google is renaming Files Go, its lightweight files app for phones with limited storage, to “Files by Google” to reflect that the app works no matter what kind of phone you’re on — and to potentially propel it to further success.

The year-old app is now used by 30 million people each month, according to Google, and it says that plenty of people outside of the app’s target demographic have been using it, prompting this change.

It’s way better than the built-in file manager

Files Go was meant to help manage files on devices with small amounts of storage, in part by offering users suggestions on what they can delete. But the app was also just a really good file browser — way better than the one built into Android by default. And that seems to have helped it catch on.

Google has also been reworking the app’s design, and it now opens straight into the file management page (whereas at launch, it went straight into suggestions for what to remove). Ultimately, the changes Google has made since launch have been mostly superficial, but they reflect that the app is a solid file manager that’s clearly better than the confusing mess that is the built-in Files app.

The app isn’t being embraced so far as to actually replace the built-in Files app on Android — it is the default in Android Go, however — but Google seems to be aware that it’s an improvement. “We often find that products designed for the Next Billion Users work just as well for everyone,” the company writes.