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How to share Files from your Drive with Non-Google Users
Emily works as a freelance marketing & social media manager. She just got subcontracted by an advertising company in order to manage some of the social accounts from their clients, and part of her tasks include to create a social media report every month and a proposed calendar with upcoming posts for each week. She has a Google Account and all of her work is on the Drive.
There’s however a small nuisance: The advertising company that hired her uses Outlook and not Google.
These kind of inconveniences are quite common for users that have G Suite but partner with non-Google users.
Google understood this was creating a significant barrier for collaboration. Therefore they decided to release an announcement at the end of 2018:
“Soon, people without Google accounts will be able to view, comment, suggest edits to, and directly edit Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides files.”
Collaboration in Google files is now for everyone
G Suite users can now invite people without Google accounts to work on files by sending them a pin code.
How do I get started?
The official name for this feature is Pincode Sharing but it hasn’t been launched formally, but you can enjoy it by signing up to Drive Beta. This feature will require the Google team to white-list a non-G Suite domain before you’re able to share anything with them.
How does it work?
Once you have been accepted by Google to enjoy this feature you can start sharing!
To do this,
- send an invitation to collaborate on a file like you normally would.
- When non-Google users receive the invitation they simply have to request for a pin code from within the email invite they get.
- That would issue them with a code they can use to see the file and collaborate directly on Google Docs, Sheets and Slides.
Below is an example of how it works:
Stay in Control of your Files
As a G Suite administrator, you can control how users in your organization share Google Drive files and folders.
Although by giving a pincode to users of other organization you’re granting them access to documents, owners and admins of the G Suite files will still be able to monitor usage through activity logs and can revoke access at any time. Anything you need to know about file sharing settings is here (or contact us for further guidance).
By using this pincode, I share my address book with non-Google users as well?
The answer is no. However there is still a way to do it!
The Google Contact delegation allows you to share individual contacts within your own domain, however it won’t let you share contact groups with other users, not even if they are using a Google account as well. Furthermore, this does not include non-Google users at all.
Fortunately, Shared Contacts for Gmail® is the simplest solution for sharing your contact groups with Google users outside of your domain, just like you share a Google Doc or a Calendar. Currently, you can synchronize your contacts with Outlook, but soon you’ll be able to share your address books with anyone.
Want to know when? Leave a comment below or stay tuned for the next announcement!
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