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How can I add a shortcut to a particular Google Drive document to my Android homescreen?
This is the Android analog to this question. Using a URL doesn't work, since I don't want to open the browser and I want to directly access a Google Drive file I have made available offline.
Could QuickShortcutMaker be used? Looking through it briefly, (see here) it doesn't look possible because the "intents" used by QuickShortcutMaker don't take arguments such as a filename.
You should be able to do this natively.
Android 3.0 (and below):
In your launcher, press and hold on a blank area and click "Shortcuts". Select "Drive Shortcut", then your document, and it will create a link for you.
Android 4.0 (and above)
Open your app drawer and jump to the Widgets section. Swipe until you get to "Drive Shortcut". Long-press and drop on your desktop. Choose the account to use (if necessary) then select the document.
Here is a slightly different take on Mike's answer, with screenshots:
(Click an image to enlarge it)
Click the 3 dots (or touch-and-hold) to open the context menu on the document
Scroll down if needed and click "add to homescreen"
Figured this out.. Go to drive, long hold on the doc, copy link, copy to clipboard. Open web browser and paste url, then copy page to homescreen. For reference I had copy to device turned on.
Recently (August 2016, Google Drive app version 2.4.311.34.34 on my 2013 Moto X running Android 5.1), there is now an "Add homescreen shortcuts to your favorite files" feature. Press the three dots menu to the right of a document (in my example, "Facebook fodder"):
then scroll up until you see an "Add To home screen" item. That will put a link to your document on your current home screen.
(FYI, the first time I tried this, Google Drive failed to open the document. I killed the Google Drive app, tried again, and successfully opened the document. I have no idea how common this problem might be.)
Edit: Adding Home screen screenshot
The thing that confuses people here is that the way to do it is from within Google Drive, not from your phone's home screen. So open the Drive app on your phone, open the Drive file you want to create the shortcut to, and then go into the settings/options menu from there. You'll see "Add shortcut to Home Screen" option and you can click that to make it. Then exit out of the Drive app and look around your phone screens for wherever it put the shortcut badge and move it around to where you want it.
The mistake I was making is the "Add to home screen" button only exists in the Google DRIVE app. I was trying to add a document directly from Google DOCS/SHEETS app. If you are currently using Google SHEETS, Google DOCS, or Google SLIDES this button will not exist. You must exit that app and go to Google DRIVE (every android should have it downloaded) and from there hold down the file you want to add the the home screen the drop down and "add to home screen" button will appear.
This worked for me on moto g(6) Android version 9:
Open the google drive app (Drive) on your android phone, then navigate to the folder containing the document that you want a shortcut of. Tap on the 3 vertical dots next to the name of the document, then tap on 'Add to Home screen'. You have to scroll down a bit to find the 'Add to Home Screen' button. (Also of note, I only see the 'Add to Home Screen' button if I navigate to the actual location of the document in the drive directory - not from the 'recently used' shortcut.)
add to home screen no longer appears.
workaround was as some one suggested above, to create shortcut via launcher -> select google drive in the list -> and then google drived opens allowing us to choose folder and file press SELECT and voila shorcut to a specific google drive file in your android screen.
hope this helps.
