Android getting new ‘local file backup’ feature via Google Drive

According to the latest release notes for Google Play services, Android phones will be getting a “new local file backup feature” powered by Google Drive.

• [Phone] With the new local file backup feature, you can automatically save your downloaded documents to Google Drive, ensuring they are safe and accessible from any of your devices.

“Local file backup” sounds like a straightforward backup feature that works in the background for your Android device’s “Download” folder (“your downloaded documents”). It’s what the Google Drive for desktop app does on Mac and Windows.

To be clear, it’s different from Android’s existing backup that uses your Google Drive storage for Apps and app data, Call history, Contacts, Device settings, and SMS and MMS messages.

We don’t have the exact implementation details today. The simplest approach would see every file in “Download” get uploaded to a new equivalent folder in Drive that…