Big changes are coming at Google, specifically in how each of its applications are interconnected.

This year they will incorporate and announce new features that will make collaboration a more flexible, interactive and intelligent experience. Making people more connected and focusing their time and attention on their ideas.

This is a set of enhancements to the applications that people use every day such as Documents, Presentations, Spreadsheets and Meet. These will start now and will continue to be added throughout the year.

Changes by application in Google Workspace

Google Meet integrated into Documents

Expected integration for teamwork or presentations.

You will be able to start a Meet video chat directly in Documents or share your Document directly in a Meet call with a single button. This allows you to keep up with the pace of choosing screen sharing options and see attendees while sharing information.

Meet will soon also integrate with Spreadsheets and Presentations.

Smart Canvas - Linking in Google Docs

Google Docs will have more connections with other Suite products, incorporating "Smart Chips".

New Smart Canvas features: these will facilitate the incorporation of smart objects, called chips, that are linked to other parts of the Google office suite. Initially, they will only connect to other documents (Sheets, Google Docs, Slides), contacts and meetings.

To insert a chip, based on known interaction models, Google will use the @ tag. Typing an @ symbol in Google Docs will bring up a menu listing the items. It will be possible to narrow down the options by typing what you want to include. Pressing enter will turn it into a smart chip.

If you link to another document and hover over it, a box will appear with relevant information to interact with. You will be able to scroll through that document online in the resizable scroll box.

Create checklists

In order to optimize team workflows, Google plans to incorporate checklists. They will be available on the web and on mobile devices.

Soon you will also be able to create task lists within a Google document and then assign them to a contact. By user choice, these tasks can be automatically synchronized with Google Tasks, making it easier for everyone to manage a project's to-do list.

Table templates

The @ symbol will be able to display custom templates for items such as project management tables, with voting and task tracking. Choosing a meeting template will automatically populate smart tags for attendees and any attachments to the calendar invitation.

Assisted writing

To help everyone work smarter, additional writing-assistance features will be added to Documents (Web) in the coming months. These include warnings about offensive words and language, as well as style suggestions to speed up editing and help make your writing more impactful.

New "No pages" view

A new responsive design for Google Docs eliminates the concept of a "page break". The update makes text flow seamlessly regardless of the width of the browser window (Surface expands to any device or screen). Thus, the idea that the document is intended for an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper is eliminated.

What are its benefits? It makes it easy to work with wide tables, large images, among others. And if you want to print or convert the file to PDF, you can easily return to a paginated view.

Canvas-based rendering

Google is updating the way Google Docs processes documents. Over the course of the next few months, they will migrate the underlying technical implementation of Docs from the current HTML-based rendering approach to a canvas-based approach to improve performance and consistency in the appearance of content across different platforms.
They do not expect this change to affect the functionality of Docs features. However, this may affect some Chrome extensions, where they may no longer work as expected.

The future of Google Sheets

Updates to improve project management.

Timeline view

If you use Google Spreadsheets to track projects: there is a new timeline view that can be used to track overlapping tasks. This view allows you to organize data by owner, category, campaign or whatever attribute suits you best.

The use of a dynamic timeline strengthens the ability to manage marketing campaigns, project milestones, timelines, team collaborations, among others.

Automatic suggestion of formulas

By dragging your mouse over the cells, you will see formula suggestions that make it easier for everyone, not just analysts, to gain insights from the data. Google will also provide better troubleshooting for broken cells.

Estimated rate of implementation 

Quick launch domains: Gradual launch (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting May 18, 2021
Scheduled launch domains: Gradual launch (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting June 7, 2021

Availability
Available for all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers.
Available for users with personal Google accounts.

At Etixen we are here to help you. We can answer your questions about updates and train you and your team to get the most out of collaboration tools.