Drive gets more notifications, homescreen shortcuts while ICS gets a warning

Google just updated the Drive app’s dashboard to save you a few extra steps when you want to access your favorite files or a higher tier of your storage plan.

Now you don’t have to open the Drive app and browse for your most commonly accessed files. The latest version of the app let’s you create Drive file shortcuts right on your device’s homescreen.

The update brings with it a new widget that will play host to the homescreen shortcuts — you can locate it by searching for “drive” in your device’s Widgets menu. That widget joins other Drive related shortcuts for scanning documents and uploading content to your cloud stores. Also introduced with the latest update, Drive will now issue comment notifications whenever someone remarks on a file shared with you. That’s in addition to its previous support for notifying users of content shared with them or request for access to files they own.

Rounding out the list of features not lumped into the bug fixes and performance improvements category, Drive now makes it simple to upgrade your storage plan inside of the app. Just pull out the app drawer and tap on the “Upgrade Storage” option to select a more robust plan.

Also of note, this is the last Drive update that will be compatible with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and older. With Nougat looking like its already rolling out to select devices, you can expect to see Google pay a lot less attention to ICS.