Simple File-Sharing Tool CloudApp Rolls Out Version 3.0, Adds Team Collaboration

CloudApp, a visual collaboration tool that began as a one-man project and has now grown to nearly 2 million users, is out today with its latest release, CloudApp 3.0, which is the first to include support for team collaboration. The expansion makes sense, as the service today caters more to creative types, including designers and developers, in addition to entrepreneurs, social media managers, students, and more – all groups that would be likely to working on projects with others.

For those unfamiliar with CloudApp, the Mac desktop app allows you to drag and drop files for easy sharing, as well as quickly take screenshots of anything on your computer screen. The latter feature has it competing with other services like Evernote’s Skitch, for example, but because it supports more than screenshots, it also rubs up against apps like Dropbox, and another Mac app called Droplr.

CloudApp Preference Menu

Started in 2010 by Max Schoening, CloudApp began as a small project before Max brought on co-founder Larry Marburger to help him rebuild the backend. After strong growth, the company was acquired by Aluminum.io earlier this year and now has a team of 10 working on its development.

“Introducing Team support in 3.0 has been a common request by organizations looking for a better way to maintain security, provision and deprovision accounts and manage company assets,” explains CloudApp CEO Tyler Koblasa. In Teams, he explains, users can take advantage of features like a shared custom domain name, custom branded landing pages, consolidated billing, and Google Apps login with two-factor authentication for added security.

CloudApp Viewer Page

“We see CloudApp for Teams really enhancing productivity within the companies,” Koblasa adds.

Already, several dozen organizations have been testing the Teams edition in a pilot program ahead of today’s launch, including companies like BufferApp and Grooveshark.

The Teams rollout will also provide CloudApp with the potential for growing its revenue, as larger groups and organizations get on board. Though the company also offers a Pro account which allows for larger file shares and more, like most “freemium” products the challenge is in converting free users to paid. The Teams edition could help with that.

Other Improvements

While Teams support is the largest of today’s announcements, CloudApp has also made a variety of improvements to its core product and its Pro plan. For Pro (paying) users, you’ll now have increased drop sizes, high-bandwidth drop support, and private-branded drop landing pages.

Meanwhile, all users can take advantage of other new features, including “CloudApp Motion” which supports animated GIFs (and soon, high-fidelity), a new CloudApp Audio and Video player for all drops, an updated UI which moves common actions to the toolbar, improved security with SSL across all APIs, the web, and shares, API improvements, and support for 2-factor Google Authentication, as noted above.

The new 3.0 version is available for download at http://cl.ly/download.