SkyDrive Pro Mobile Apps for Windows 8, iOS

Microsoft on Friday delivered the first versions of its promised SkyDrive Pro mobile apps for Windows 8/RT and iOS (iPhone, iPad and iPod touch). The app, which looks and works almost exactly like the SkyDrive mobile app, provides a handy way to access your SkyDrive Pro-based files in Office 365, SharePoint Online, or SharePoint 2013.

I’m away this week, so I tested the SkyDrive Pro app for Windows 8/RT. From the tile to the app interface, this app is clearly modeled on the SkyDrive app that ships as part of Windows 8/RT.

The app offers the same basic navigation, view styles (details, thumbnails) and capabilities as the SkyDrive app.

But it also offers view sorting: You can sort by name, date, size or type.

Unfortunately, the app doesn’t offer offline access to your files too. You can download files, but not sync them with the SkyDrive Pro service. (The SkyDrive desktop application supports this functionality, of course, but doesn’t work with Windows RT or non-Windows platforms.)

That said, the app does provide simple file browsing, upload, and even sharing capabilities. (To share outside your organization, your administrator will need to have enabled this functionality.)

This is a great start for the SkyDrive Pro mobile app family. I’m looking forward to a version for Windows Phone 8, and to the possibility that this functionality—and offline sync—could be further integrated with Windows 8 and RT too.

You can download the SkyDrive Pro app for Windows 8/RT from the Windows Store.

The SkyDrive Pro app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch is available from the iTunes Store.