younity :A Fantastic Way to Access Files on the Go

by Aug 4, 20150 comments

Genre : Productivity
Platform : iPad | iPhone
Rating : 4.5
Positives : file management, concept, easy to use
Negatives : none

We all spend so much of our lives on the go these days that not having access to all of your files can be a real headache. Younity attempts to fill that need by offering a personal cloud system that makes many of your phone, tablet and computer files available to you whenever and wherever you need them.

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Younity creates a personal cloud for documents, photos, music and videos that allows you to share files between your devices. Effectively, it gives you unlimited storage space by letting you pull large files from the cloud when you need them. One important advantage of Younity is that it’s OS-neutral, so it’s a great choice if you have, say, a Windows PC and an iPhone, or if friends and family members you’d like to share files with use different operating systems.
The app is free on the iTunes store and downloads quickly.

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When it starts up, you’ll be asked to either create a new account, or login with your Facebook or Google+ account. I didn’t want another password to remember, so I went with Facebook. It turned out to be a smart move, because that made it much easier for me to invite my friends to join Younify so I could share files with them via the program. It’s especially great for sharing photos and video clips.

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Younity isn’t flawless. It’s mportant to note that Younity only works when all of your devices are turned on and connected to the internet, so if you think you might want to use Younity on your phone to access something on your laptop you’ll need to leave it open. It also takes a while for the computer files to become available on a phone — most of an hour, in my case. (I have an iPhone 6 and around 40,000 files.) And the App itself doesn’t give much of an explanation, so I had to read the online FAQ to know why I couldn’t see or touch my files yet. Even there, the company’s estimate of 3-5 minutes for everything to become available seems wildly off-base.

Once all of my files had transferred to the cloud, operation was a breeze. The operation is clear and easy to understand: Everything was where I expected it to be intuitively,and the layout is clean and easy to understand. I especially appreciated the sharing button, which allows you to easily access any files your friends have posted for you. The app also makes it easy to download files, if you want to take something out of the cloud and put it on a specific device.

The app is especially useful for streaming music and movies, which can take up a lot of a phone’s limited disk space when downloaded. One small problem is that there isn’t a playlist option, so you have to manually seek out the song you want to listen to each time. The streaming speed is generally good over mobile data but can lag sometimes if you’re using WiFi.

Overall, I’m very satisfied with Younity and can’t wait for more of my friends to start using it so we can easily share content.

Worth Having App – Download the App