Google to launch unified Drive for Desktop, Backup and Sync to become defunct later this year Google in a blog post announced that syncing clients will help users in curbing confusion about which app to use, result in better performance, and make it easier for admins and IT teams to manage deployments. Yasmin Ahmed | February 5, 2021 | Updated 13:24 IST (Picture: Google Drive) Highlights Google will launch one unified Drive for Desktop and Google Drive File Stream, Backup and Sync will become defunct later this year. Google noted that it is merely a name change for Google Drive File Stream for business users as the functionality remains the same.