Activity dashboard in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides adds sharing history, comment stats

Last year, Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides introduced an Activity dashboard to provide stats and easily see who has viewed a document. The three G Suite apps are now adding sharing history and comment analytics.

With the Activity dashboard, Google set out to improve the follow-up experience of collaborating on documents. For example, users can check if coworkers have already viewed an updated file instead of manually asking.

These additions will further flesh out the Activity dashboard, making it a centralized hub where document owners and editors can see how other collaborators are engaging with their content.

The latest feature for the panel, which was updated with the Google Material Theme in October, is “Sharing history.” This stat provides “granular visibility” into how a file is being shared across a G Suite domain, with a chronological feed of who shared access and what editing level was granted. In addition to individual users, general sharing like “anyone with the link” will appear.

“Comment trend” helps “visualize the conversations in a particular document.” It displays the number of comments and replies since a document was created. A picker in the upper-right corner allows users to specify an exact time range.

There is also a “Weekly comment trend” graph that notes new threads, replies, and unresolved comments over the lifetime of a document. These two features will be available for all G Suite editions over the coming weeks.