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Christopher Dawson

Google Docs for Android app finally gets mobile collaboration

By | February 22, 2012, 12:03pm PST

Summary: Google has finally added mobile collaboration and editing features into the Google Docs for Android app.

This is one of those cases where the headline really does say it all: The native Google Docs app for Android phones and tablets has been updated to enable real-time document collaboration and editing without having to launch a browser, plus a few other enhancements to the overall mobile experience. The update is available now on the Android Market.

I suspect that the people who would be really interested left after reading that first paragraph, but if you’re still here, Google also says in the blog entry that it’s added rich text formatting for creating bullet lists, bolding important sentences or adding color. It also now supports things like pinch-to-zoom into a single paragraph (or back out again into the whole document view).

Previously, the Google Docs app largely acted as a smarter frontend to the cloud document editing suite. Users were able to view documents, store their list of documents (though not the documents themselves) on the device, share files with people from your address book, and even turn a photo of text into an editable document. But any editing was actually done in the browser, and the collaborative aspect was limited to say the least.

Now, though, you can join a document with a touch and see changes in real-time, similar to the desktop browser-based version. Google even has a demonstration video up on YouTube, for further illumination.

Who’s excited about editing their Google Docs on an Android phone? Sound off in the comments.

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Matthew has written about consumer and personal technology for The New York Daily News and comic book culture for ComicMix.com.

Disclosure

Matt Weinberger

Matt Weinberger has no financial investments in the companies he covers.

Biography

Matt Weinberger

Matthew also covers software as a service (SaaS), cloud computing and recurring revenue models for the IT channel at TalkinCloud.com and MSPmentor.net. He has written about consumer and personal technology for The New York Daily News and comic book culture for ComicMix.com. Matthew is a graduate of the Stony Brook University School of Journalism.
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RE: Google Docs for Android app finally gets mobile collaboration
famulla 23rd Feb
That is a good idea. We needed something new from Google.I thank you Firozali A.Mulla DBA
Google docs !!! what a joke...
google apps or docs or whatever they call it, is not for serious business.

One of the very basic functionality of computing is called 'Sorting' and they are not available in so called google apps. The businesses who sign up for google apps are big fools.
@owllnet "Sort by" is in the top-right corner. Wow.
0 Votes
+ -
Will look but.....
rhonin 22nd Feb
How does this work better or provide me better options that QOPro or Docs2Go and a cloud local or similar?
Amazing app. Would be very helpful to many of us. Meanwhile, I've come across some new tools which looks very interesting and handy, for collaboration.
One such tool is CollateBox http://www.collatebox.com/ . Just registered with this one found their video looks neat..Eagerly waiting for this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KruqWWiw1s
That is a good idea. We needed something new from Google.I thank you Firozali A.Mulla DBA

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