Google Docs for Android has received a nice update today that brings with it several new and important features to the document processing app. The update is version 1.4.412.07.30 for those keeping score at home and brings things like spellcheck and word count to the app amongst other features and improvements. The update to the app is rolling out to the Google Play Store now so you should see it as an OTA update any time today or over the next couple of days.
If you have been considering moving from Microsoft Office to Google Docs, I posted a 4-part series on my move over. It’s not for everyone but with improvements like the ones today, the transition is certainly getting more on par from a feature perspective.
My Migration to Google Docs Part 1 – The Setup
My Migration to Google Docs Part 2 – Google Docs on All The Toys
My Migration to Google Docs Part 3 – Between the Google Sheets
My Migration to Google Docs Part 4 – Sliding to Google Slides
The update today is for the Android versions of the app. First you now have spellcheck and word count available to you, the later of which you can access from the menu while you
Google Docs for Android
are viewing or editing a document. Spellcheck can only be accessed when you are actually editing a document.
Google Docs Supports Subscript and Superscript Fonts
In addition to these, Docs now also has the ability to add superscript and subscript text to a paragraph. While all of these features so pretty basic – and they are admittedly – it is good to see Google continuing to improve these apps. Google wants to go after Microsoft in the Office suite space and to do that, little things like these features have to be there.
In addition to the new features, the app has also received the ambiguous bug fixes and performance improvements according to the release notes. What exactly was fixed or addressed is not listed but even if these new features aren’t that big of a deal to you, the update will be worth it just to assure you have the best version on your devices.
Google Docs along with the other Office apps (Google Sheets and Google Slides) is free and remember that storing Docs files on your Google Drive account does not count against your used storage space.
