Evernote gets Google Drive integration in Android and Chrome

Evernote and Google today announced a partnership that lets you access your Google Drive files directly in Evernote. The new integration, which is still in beta, is available in Evernote for Android and in the Web app, but only using Chrome. Evernote said other platforms will follow “soon” but didn’t commit to a timeframe.

In short, you can now drop any file from Google Drive into an Evernote note to add context. Previously, you could paste links to files, but now Google Drive content shows up with thumbnail previews and “a rich viewing experience.” Furthermore, you can search Google Drive from Evernote, changes to files sync automatically with your notes, and the Evernote toolbar even sports a Google Drive icon to take you to the service.

Evernote says its users “create millions of notes that contain links pasted from Google Drive” every day and that “More than half of all Evernote users also have a Google Account.” The company didn’t say, but to get this estimate Evernote likely looked at the domains of the email addresses its users signed up with.

This partnership means Evernote users have one fewer reason to switch between apps. There really is no downside for Evernote. On Google’s end, the integration might mean that Google users are more likely to stay with Evernote than move to Google Keep, but they are also more likely to stick with Google Drive over Dropbox or OneDrive, and that’s where the competition and revenue is.

“Making Drive content available in Evernote was very natural for us,” Google Drive product manager Alex Vogenthaler said in a statement. “Evernote is a great productivity tool and we want anyone using Drive to have access to their content whenever and wherever they’re trying to get stuff done. That’s the cloud at its best.”

“Once people see how well Evernote and Google Drive work together, they’ll use both products intuitively,” Evernote CEO Chris O’Neill said in a statement. “For Evernote enthusiasts, this is a natural progression. Google is organizing the world’s information, and now Google Drive and Evernote are helping you do just that with your information.”

If that seems like an exaggeration, that’s because it is. But Evernote and Google are apparently not stopping here.

Evernote says “this is just the beginning” for its Google relationship, and that “even tighter integration” is on its way. Given the company’s serious struggles, partnering with Google is as good of a Hail Mary as any.