Google Slides

Instead of just a toolbar, Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides now offers a sidebar for accessing the various formatting options on Android tablets.

Google Docs, along with Sheets and Slides, on the web is getting a redesign of the comments view that aims to “help you find and take action on comments easier than ever before.”

Instead of using third-party tools, Google Slides is rolling out the ability to record yourself presenting with link-based Drive sharing once you’re done.

Google’s work on optimizing first-party apps for Android tablets and foldables continues with an upcoming redesign for Docs, Sheets, and Slides. 

Google is making a change to what it calls the “First Open Experience” that will launch Docs in edit mode, with Sheets and Slides also getting a “more creation-focused experience.”

At the start of last month, Google Workspace announced that it would start public testing of Duet AI image generation in Slides, and it’s now more widely available.

Google is expanding Workspace Labs with a trio of new features across Gmail, Docs, and Slides, including image generation. 

Google has been publicly testing features that help users write in Gmail and Docs over the past few weeks. Generative AI is now coming to Sheets, Slides, and Meet with a new name: Duet AI for Google Workspace.

In recent years, Google has tweaked the menu bar in Docs to make it easier to find what you’re looking for. A prominent search bar is now coming to Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

Besides Chrome updates at BETT 2023, Google shared upcoming Workspace features for education customers across Docs, Slides, and Classroom, while Meet is getting AI-powered hand raise detection.

Formally announced last month, the Material You inspired redesigns of Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides on the web are beginning to appear for some Workspace customers.

While the mobile Workspace apps were quickly updated alongside Android 12’s Pixel launch in fall of 2021, it took much longer for Material Design 3 to arrive on the web. Following the Gmail redesign last year, Material You is coming next to Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

Google is making a small but profound usability tweak by adding an eyedropper tool to the color picker in Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings.

At I/O 2022, Google announced that over 20 first-party apps would be optimized for tablets. We’ve already seen a handful of launches since May, and Google Drive, Docs/Sheets/Slides, and Keep are now set to receive updates that improve multitasking on Android tablets.