Google Launches New iOS Apps for Google Docs and Sheets

[MacRumors]

Google today debuted two new standalone iOS apps for documents and spreadsheets. Google Docs and Google Sheets are designed to allow users to create and access documents and spreadsheets on their mobile devices.

Before the introduction of Google Docs and Google Sheets, documents were only accessible via Google Drive or the web. Google is also planning to release a Google Slides app in the near future, further growing its line of productivity apps on the iPad and the iPhone.

The apps are designed with offline support built in, so viewing, editing, and creating files can be done without an Internet connection. Google Docs supports opening and editing documents that have been previously worked on via another device and documents can be shared and edited by multiple users at the same time.

With Google Docs you can:

- Create new documents or open and edit any that you started on the web or another device.
- Share documents and work together with others in the same document at the same time
- Get stuff done anytime-even without an internet connection
- Add and respond to comments
- Never worry about losing your work-everything is automatically saved as you type

Google Sheets functions similarly, allowing multiple users to work on documents in the app or on the web. The app supports formatting of cells, sorting data, and more.

With Google Sheets you can:

- Create new spreadsheets or open and edit any that you started on the web or another device.
- Share spreadsheets and work together with others in the same spreadsheet at the same time
- Get stuff done anytime-even without an internet connection
- Format cells, enter/sort data, perform various sheet operations, and more
- Never worry about losing your work-everything is automatically saved as you type

Both of Google's new apps can be downloaded from the App Store at no cost.

- Google Docs [Direct Link]
- Google Sheets [Direct Link]

Article Link: Google Launches New iOS Apps for Google Docs and Sheets

 

[Lapidus]

In a few years, I guess this will be the popularity order:
Google > Apple > Microsoft

 

[genovelle]

Only if Google figures out how to make money outside of search on the PC

 

[i4m]

about time...

 

[mike1982]

It’s great these were finally released but I feel like Google should’ve released this before Microsoft released their office apps. Maybe they would have been able to take some of Microsoft's market share. Looking forward to trying this out.

 

[Jessica Lares]

Cool. Pretty soon my brother will be able to do his slideshows on his iPhone then. (They use Google Drive in our school district)

They did a really nice job with the format options (Take note Microsoft).

 

[arkmannj]

well, not having a subscription model will be sure to help. As much as I am sure Microsoft did a fine job with office for ios, the subscription only approach still kills it for me, and makes me more likely to use other solutions on mobile devices. (like googles apps, apple's, etc)

 

[Menel]

How does this differ from the Google Drive app that can create and edit spreadsheets.

 

[M-O]

not as good as the android versions.

...oh, wait.

 

[kwokaaron]

Deleted

 

[knemonic]

Sweet, Sheets crashes just like google drive when I try opening a google created spreadsheet. What a joke.

 

[numlock]

Only if Google figures out how to make money outside of search on the PC

are they losing money on gmail, drive or youtube?

just tried it on an 5s (will try on an ipad later) but this seems to be no better than the drive app which i find to be quite embarrassing considering its from google and the web version is good. i understand having these separate apps may get them to add more frequent updates and changes like iwork but im disappointed how little the google drive experience on ios has improved since it was first released.

 

[Parasprite]

In a few years, I guess this will be the popularity order:
Google > Apple > Microsoft

Nah, people seem to hate Google too much lately due to the whole "data aggregation"/Google+ things. On the other hand, people seem to be warming up to MS's latest offerings and actually trusting them enough to use Internet Explorer at all.

What a bizarro world we live in.

 

[roadbloc]

In a few years, I guess this will be the popularity order:
Google > Apple > Microsoft

When it comes to Office suites, no chance. Microsoft Office is still by far the best software. There was once a time when iWork had a chance of catching up, but Apple decided to gut it of features.

 

[hlfway2anywhere]

How does this differ from the Google Drive app that can create and edit spreadsheets.

I know, right? I don't know if maybe these have more features or something... but why do I want separate apps for this when I already have one that does both?

 

[numlock]

I know, right? I don't know if maybe these have more features or something... but why do I want separate apps for this when I already have one that does both?

i dont see that it has anything more than the drive app but will it allow them to update and add changes more quickly and easily?

also it begs the question will the drive be modified into more of a dropbox app?

 

[Tmelon]

But what about PowerPoint?

 

[Bill Killer]

In a few years, I guess this will be the popularity order:
Google > Apple > Microsoft

I think you're fooling yourself if you think iWork will ever eclipse Office in popularity.

 

[Menel]

I know, right? I don't know if maybe these have more features or something... but why do I want separate apps for this when I already have one that does both?

Downloaded, tapped around, don't see anything new. Seems uselessly redundant.

 

[C DM]

But what about PowerPoint?

Google Slides?

 

[Futurix]

I don't get the purpose of the new apps - no new editing features compared to Google Drive app (still no editing for tables embedded inside Docs for example) and (unlike Drive) both apps don't show folders, just one long list of all documents filtered by type. What's the point? To give Google more icons?

 

[seamer]

Google Slides?

Slides is still under-done when compared to the other apps. With Sheets and stuff, you know there's probably 10% major differences. With Slides, it feels much higher (worse), like a 50% disparity.

I could be wrong, but as a regular user and not a developer/publisher it's the way it feels.

 

[joshi3joshi]

Downloaded, tapped around, don't see anything new. Seems uselessly redundant.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the only feature that this new Google Docs app has over Google drive is the ability for offline editing. The current Google drive app supports offline viewing of files but not editing. Google Docs app now supports this.

 

[Razeus]

about time...

This.

Exactly what I've been waiting for instead of using the Google Drive app.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

I think you're fooling yourself if you think iWork will ever eclipse Office in popularity.

I disagree, strongly.

There are two things that matter in picking an office suite:
1 - How easy is collaboration?
2 - How capable is the suite of making great looking documents?

For the first category, Google wins, no competition. It's what their claim to fame is and always has been - it's what they've been focused on from day one. Without that, the entire world would have scoffed, shoved it aside, and kept using Office. iWork is better than Office in this category, but the synchronization is quite buggy when multiple people are editing a single document - it'll regularly see simultaneous edits as being mutually exclusive, even though they have nothing to do with each other, and thus force you to pick one edit or the other, not both.

For the second category, Apple and Microsoft's suites are about as capable of each other. The major difference is that with Apple, it's incredibly easy whereas I have to search through help manuals on a regular basis to make even trivial style changes in Office. Google is in an extremely distant last place in this category. It's okay for presentations (although even then, it's far inferior to PowerPoint and Keynote) but I'd never seriously consider making anything more than a trivial spreadsheet in it or a short, 1 or 2 page list just for internal usage, in the word editor.

Apple is poised to have inarguably the best software - they just need to fix synchronization issues in collaboration.

Oh, and you guys may not realize it, but IBM still makes Lotus. I had always assumed that died when Microsoft made Office, but I was wrong. It's easily the worst productivity suite in existence, but IBM requires all IBM employees to use it.