Dropbox has long been an essential service for iOS power users but you wouldn’t know that based on their app. Today that changed with the release of a new version with several substantial new improvements including:

1. PDF Signing

You can now sign a PDF document right inside the Dropbox application. It’s not a substitute for a quality PDF application but in a jam, it will get the job done.

2. Messages Support

You can now link a Dropbox file from right inside messages instead of having to go back to the application for a link.

3. Widget Support

There’s now a Dropbox widget so you can create, view, and upload files from the widget.

4. Notifications and Lock Screen

Dropbox supports notifications including letting you know when someone saves a new version of a file. This is another feature that will make Dropbox-based collaboration easier.

5. Picture in Picture

I’ve got a lot of media stored on Dropbox. I’ve long waited for this feature that lets Dropbox become an iOS media player.

Split Screen?

The feature I want most in iOS Dropbox, split screen, sadly isn’t part of the update but Dropbox promises it is coming soon.

Edit in Place?

Another feature I’d like to see Dropbox support is true “edit in place” functionality. Currently, if you want to edit a Pages document or PDF file stored in Dropbox, it gets sent out to the third party application where it makes a copy and then you have all the shenanigans that result from multiple copies of documents. Dropbox does support edit in place with Microsoft Word documents and PDFs (if you’ll edit them in Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat) but that is far too limiting. iCloud actually does a better job at this part of the equation than Dropbox. Hopefully more robust edit in place support is on the horizon.