A new update to the Google Docs app for Android does a few things, but most importantly brings a popular feature from the desktop version of Google Docs to mobile: real-time document editing.
From the Google+Blog%29″>official Google blog:
We want to give everyone the chance to be productive no matter where they are, so today we’re releasing a new update to the Google Docs app for Android. We’ve brought the collaborative experience from Google Docs on the desktop to your Android device. You’ll see updates in real time as others type on their computers, tablets and phones, and you can just tap the document to join in.
The update also tweaks the UI to make it cleaner for mobile, for example you can now pinch to zoom focus to a specific paragraph and reverse that out to the whole document. Google has also added rich text formatting (bold, italics, font colors), layout tools (bullets, indents, numbered lists) and cursor presence so you can see where each editor is within the document.
Along with the update, they also unveiled this cute little ad that shows the benefits of collaborative document editing on the go. It’s called “Best Best Man” and shows how Google Docs could be used in a very stressful situation:
This new ad is particularly important in the context of Microsoft’s recent onslaught of advertisements slamming Google Apps and specifically Google Docs. One Valentine’s day ad bashed Google Docs’ lack of style as a “cupcake without the icing.” Another recent ad from Microsoft, Googlighting, slams Google Office apps and once again, Google Docs is clearly the main target.
As far as ads go, I’d say Google’s is better – but that shouldn’t surprise to anyone who has seen some of their amazing ads for Chrome.
In other Office Apps news, we might be getting a Microsoft Office Suite for iPad in the near future, or we might not. More on that here.