Amazon introduces Cloud Drive app for iOS devices, iPhone and iPad users gets limited access to hosting serivce

Amazon is beefing up its Cloud Drive online file hosting service with the release of an official Cloud Drive file explorer app for iOS. This means that iPhone and iPad users can now access the service, which was previously only available for the Mac and Windows platforms until an Android app was introduced last June.

TechCrunch reports that the app complements the other standalone apps from Amazon, but functions more as a file manager than dealing with a specific kind of media. The Amazon Cloud Drive app displays the contents of the user's online storage identical to how the user set up his or her Cloud Drive folder, a system similar to cloud storage services Dropbox and Google Drive, while the complementary apps handle a specific media type, such as the Cloud Drive Photos app to back up the user's photos.

There appears to be some limitations and platform-specific features for the each version of the app, though. As reported by TechnoBuffalo, the iOS version of the app lets users preview documents, spreadsheets and presentations, while the Android version only lets users change the sorting display style of the files. Both the iOS and Android versions of the app lets users share files as links and attachments; users have the option to share these links privately in emails or instant messages, or in public. However, neither of the two versions is able to edit the contents of the files stored online, nor can the user add files by uploading them through the app.

In related news, Amazon is following Apple's lead and has rebranded their Cloud Music streaming service as Prime Music. However, in contrast with the Apple version which only supports streaming from Apple's library, Amazon's Prime Music is more flexible, offering both a Pandora-style streaming service aside from the ability to play music and even videos stored on the Amazon Cloud Drive.

The Cloud Drive app is available through iTunes for free and requires iOS 8.1, but users will have to pay for storage with two tier options.