Google Docs Gets Mobile Editing: iDevices and Android (Review)

Google Docs Gets Mobile Edting

We a big fans of Google Docs. Actually, we’re big fans of Google in general. Much of our browsing time is spent within our Google account: Gmail, Google Reader and GChat.

We first heard that Google Docs would be editable through mobile browsers back in September. It was definitely exciting. Being that our work revolves around writing–a lot of writing–there are often times we will be away from our computer but have to look at a document we working on. Google Docs works well, because we can access it from any computer we happen to be on so long as there is an internet connection available.

Of course, we aren’t always at our computer. Sometimes something comes up and we are required to do some quick work or editing on something we had saved in Google Docs. That’s where this new feature comes in.

We tested it out on the iPad and we tried it with the iPhone. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to be working on our iPhone. We will be looking further into that and testing it out on other models soon.

Google Docs and iPad

The Good

Editing from your mobile device - As mentioned before, being that we write for a living, we are often having to type up documents quickly and whenever the need arises. This has many times happened while on the road, and typing something urgent on a mobile device via email to forward to an editor is not unusual for us. Editing something we typed out late into the night before is also very common, and sometimes mobile is the best way to go.’ It works for spreadsheets, but they take a little bit of getting used to. It’s definitely not the most efficient way to edit a spreadsheet, but will get you by in a pinch.

Voice recognition in Google Docs for Android - Android users get an awesome bonus feature in which they are able to speak to edit. For instance, you would say, “Hello comma John period” to type out “Hello, John.” Very nifty for note taking, we imagine. Especially since Google has some excellent voice recognition technology.

The Bad

We were unable create a new document. That means that you will only be able to modify existing work that you have already saved. May be worth saving a document as “Scratch” or “Notes” just in case you have to put something together when needed.

The Verdict

We’ve been waiting for this feature for quite some time now. It was a bummer when we first found out that we couldn’t edit Google Docs from an iOS device. That’s all possible now, and its awesome. Where this webapp does come up short, however, is in its inability to create a new document. We can understand that its main purpose is for editing, but we think that one extra button that reads “New Document” couldn’t hurt.

We will continue to try to get it working on the iPhone and update you all with the status. Perhaps it hasn’t been fully rolled out yet. Either way, we can’t hold that against it.

3.5 out of 5 – Works well, but misses a crucial feature “Create New.”

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