Google updates Gmail with Google Drive support for attachments

When you're sent an email with an attachment you probably do one of two things. You might preview the file in your browser, or you might download it to your hard drive. If you want to be able to access the file on other computers without having to track down the original email again, you may then take the extra step of uploading it to Google Drive. But it's all too easy for attachments to end up getting lost on the desktop or a catch-all Downloads folder.

This is something Google may be able to change with the latest addition to Gmail. Now there is no need to click an attachment to view a preview -- supported file types (including images, PDFs and videos) are automatically previewed as small thumbnails. You can still click them if you would like to see a larger preview, but this is not the only change that has been made. When an email has multiple attachments, it is now possible to scroll through them slideshow-style.

This is great for dealing with several images at once, but it is also handy for other types of files. When previewing files there are two new download buttons. The button featuring a Google Drive icon does what you'd expect: it lets you save the file directly to your Google Drive account to bypass having to manually upload it. It's even possible to choose which folder the file should be added to.

Files can be downloaded individually from the preview screen, or you have the option of downloading them all at once using the "Save all to Drive" button in your email. Regular, local downloads are still possible, and these are catered for by the button featuring an arrow. The announcement was made in a post on the official Google blog where it is explained that the features will be rolling out to Google users over the coming week.