Google Docs goes offline on Android phones, tablets
Google Docs has gained offline capabilities on Android devices and also now features enhanced functionality for tablets running the open-source operating system.
The moves were detailed in a Google blog post on Wednesday, in which software engineer Freeman Liu said they would aid productivity. Until now, Google Docs has only worked on Android smartphones and tablets when a Wi-Fi or mobile broadband connection is available.
"There may be times when you don't have an internet connection on your Android device, but you still want access to a file you've saved in Google Docs," Liu said. "Now you can select any file in Google Docs to make it available offline. So, regardless of whether you're connected to the internet, you're always connected to those files."
When the Android device finds a Wi-Fi connection, it automatically updates the offline files, Liu said. The updating can also be done manually over mobile broadband connections.
The types of files that can be used offline include Google documents, presentations and spreadsheets, as well as uploaded images and .pdf, .doc, .xls and .ppt files, Liu wrote.
For Android tablet users, Google Docs documents will now show up in high resolution while the device is online. New gestures have also been added, so the user can flip pages by swiping left or right, or by using a slider at the bottom of the screen.
The changes revealed on Wednesday brings Google's productivity suite on Android devices more in line with the browser-based version it offers on desktops and Chromebooks.
The offline functionality in the desktop Google Docs is particularly important for Chromebooks, as Google's Chrome OS laptops are not built around the concept of local storage. Google used to provide the feature through a plugin called Gears, but it axed that approach two years ago. Offline functionality only returned in September 2011, using HTML5 technologies instead.
It remains to be seen how well Chromebooks are doing, although there is little indication that they are attracting much consumer interest. Android, meanwhile, is a raging success on smartphones and a moderate achiever on tablets, so it makes sense for Google to be paying increased attention to that version of Google Docs.