Google Docs arrives on Android

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Google Docs for Android widget

Google has released a version of its Docs productivity suite for Android, allowing people to view and edit text documents, spreadsheets and other content types on their smartphone without resorting to a third-party app.

The Android app solves one of the biggest problems with Gmail, which is the difficulty in opening up attachments that would be easily accessible on a desktop, using the full version of Google Docs. It works on Android phones at or above version 2.1 of the mobile OS — these shots show a Nexus S, which runs 'Gingerbread' Android 2.3 — and synchronises fully with the desktop version of the suite.

The app comes with an optional widget that lets the user go straight to a list of all documents or all starred documents. The icon on the right opens up a new document.

The icon second from the right fires up the handset's camera, so the user can photograph a document — if it is in a certain font and in English, the app will then apply optical character recognition (OCR) to convert the photographed piece into plain text. In ZDNet UK's experience, this function works to a limited extent.

Photo credit: David Meyer