OneDrive for Windows Phone Updated to Version 4.1

Microsoft this week began distributing a new version of its OneDrive app for Windows Phone, adding a ton of new features. Best of all, it works for all currently supported versions of Windows Phone, including Windows Phone 7.5, 8, and 8.1.

The previous version of the app was 3.5, so as you might expect the jump to 4.1 brings a number of additional features. Microsoft says these include:

Now looks great on large screen phones. It's a bit subtle, but on large screen (5-inches or bigger, it seems), the default details view makes better use of the available onscreen real estate.

OneDrive 3.5 on Windows Phone 8 (left) and OneDrive 4.1 on Windows Phone 8.1 (right)

Upload multiple photos, videos and files at once.  

New immersive view for viewing and managing photos. Now, when you view a photo in the app, you don't have to tap the almost-hidden More ("...") app bar button to see commands. Instead, you can tap the photo and see Delete, Share, Download and Rename app bar buttons, plus the time and date the photo was taken.

OneDrive 3.5 on Windows Phone 8 (left) and OneDrive 4.1 on Windows Phone 8.1 (right)

Open files from OneDrive in other apps. I assume this is analogous to the file picker in Windows 8.1: That OneDrive is a choice (in addition to "on the phone") when you go to open a file from within an app. I don't have any apps that do this to test it, but it seems straightforward enough.

Share files to OneDrive from other apps. You could always share files from OneDrive, but now OneDrive appears in the Share screen when you share an item (document, photo) from other apps. You get a full-screen OneDrive experience so you can navigate to the exact folder where you wish to store that item.

Sort files and folders. A new Sort By item in the app bar menu lets you choose how the current folder is viewed: By name (ascending), name (descending), newest, oldest, largest or smallest.

Bug fixes and performance improvements

Lots of nice changes, basically.

You can grab the new OneDrive app for Windows Phone from the Windows Phone Store. Though if you have Windows Phone 8.1, you probably got it automatically already.