It is now much easier to start or join a co-editing session. You can start a co-editing session when an available application allows co-editing: Microsoft Office Online or Google Workspace. You can join a co-editing session when a file is already being edited by a user in an application that allows co-editing:
Starting or Joining a Co-Editing Session
You can start the session from both Folder Listing and File Preview.
Folder Listing
On folder listing, when a user hovers over the file, which is not yet edited, a big blue "Co-Edit in ..." button shows up:
Upon clicking the "Co-Edit in..." button, a new tab will be opened, and it will be possible to co-edit the file with others.
When someone already started a session, instead of the "lock" icon, a special "collaboration" icon is shown.
When a user hovers over the file, which has a co-editing session started, a big blue "Co-Edit" button shows up:
Upon clicking the "Co-edit" button, a new tab will be opened, and it will be possible to co-edit the file - together with the user who started co-editing the document earlier.
File Preview
Similar to Folder Listing, when a co-editing session is not yet started, the "Co-Edit in ..." button is displayed.
In the case when there is an existing co-editing session, the same "Co-Edit" button is shown in File Preview:
Configuring a Default App
When both Microsoft Office Online and Google Workspace integrations have been added to the domain, a domain admin can configure one of the integrations to be the default app for editing. The setting is available in the "Apps and Integrations" -> "App Control Center" to domain admins.
Desktop App, Mobile App, etc.
In Desktop App, the file will be "locked" - except for the case when the file is being opened by the same user who had started editing the file in Microsoft Office Online or Google Workspace (v3 integration) earlier.
Legacy Google integrations such as old, deprecated Google Docs, and the domain-wide Google Drive integrations are not supported, and their means of collaboration remain unchanged.
Learn more about co-editing by watching a Quick Tip on Egnyte University: Co-edit Files in the Web UI