Google unveils new features for Workspace, part of an initiative called “smart canvas”, including smart objects in Docs and deeper integration of Meet
The VergeDieter Bohn
Context & Ripple Effects
Smart Canvas is the productization of the direction Google set when it rebranded G Suite as Google Workspace in late 2020 and stitched Meet, Chat, and Rooms into every app. The 2021-03 feature drop — Focus Time, secondary-display Meet — was incremental; this announcement is the architectural one, turning the document itself into the container where meetings, tasks, and other apps' content live.
The arc since confirms the bet: the canvas Google laid down here is the same surface that later carried Meet appearance controls, Gemini-era Docs and Meet features, and ultimately Workspace Flows, Google's multi-step AI automation tool.
First-order effects
Docs users get smart objects — checklists, meeting notes, and content pulled in via @-mentions from other Workspace apps — making the document a hub rather than a text file.
Meet stops being a destination app: deeper integration puts video calls inside Docs workflows, continuing the cross-app embedding Google began with the Workspace rebrand.
Second-order effects
The canvas structure creates the integration surface Google later opened to third parties — Atlassian, Figma, and others plugged in via new Chat and Meet APIs in the 2022 enterprise update.
Every app Google folds into the document raises switching costs inside Workspace, pressuring rival productivity suites to match the embedded-collaboration model feature for feature.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, the productivity suite converges on a single agentic work surface: documents host meetings, tasks, and eventually autonomous multi-step automation, with individual apps reduced to components the canvas orchestrates.
Suite competition shifts from per-app feature parity to whoever controls the shared surface where AI capabilities get embedded — a structural advantage that compounds with each integration.
The trend: Productivity suites are consolidating around a shared collaborative canvas into which successive waves of features — integrations first, then AI agents — get embedded.
Google Docs will now default to “pageless” view instead of printer view. Limitless paper in a paperless world. https://www.theverge.com/...
@shreef
@shreef on x
So Notion & Coda turned out to be features after all. I'm excited about having those new features in G docs https://www.theverge.com/...
@bitandbang
Tierney Cyren on x
a cohesive, web-first productivity suite with performance in mind is the solution that will win in the long-run https://twitter.com/...
@patrickc
Patrick Collison on x
Between this and removing print view as the default in Google Docs it is a great day for innovation! https://www.theverge.com/...
@manukumar
Manu Kumar on x
Excited for these new Google Docs changes. I stopped using Microsoft Office years ago and it's refreshing to see Google think out of the box and break that decades old paradigm. https://twitter.com/...
@ismh
Stephen Hackett on x
OpenDoc never really dies. https://www.theverge.com/...
@kevin_indig
@kevin_indig on x
Ok, so Google Workspace now competes with Notion, Atlassian, Zoom, and Microsoft. Google's advantage? Gmail! Integrating task management with email is insanely powerful. Google's disadvantage? Messenger! Realtime communication is still wonky. https://www.theverge.com/...
@_swanand
Swanand on x
Notion and Confluence should be worried. https://twitter.com/...
@zbruceli
Bruce Nkn on x
Making the GSuite or Google Suite better is always welcome, for small teams like us who collaborate around the globe. https://www.theverge.com/...
@googleworkspace
@googleworkspace on x
Introducing smart canvas—a new product experience that transforms collaboration in #GoogleWorkspace. Learn about the new ways to collaborate in #GoogleDocs, #GoogleSheets, #GoogleSlides, and more → https://cloud.google.com/... #GoogleIO https://twitter.com/...
@googleworkspace
@googleworkspace on x
New interactive building blocks—smart chips, templates, and checklists—will connect people, content, and events into one seamless experience. Learn more about this #GoogleDocs feature → https://cloud.google.com/... #GoogleIO https://twitter.com/...
@thomasortk
Thomas Kurian on x
Today at #GoogleIO we shared the next step in the future of work with smart canvas, a new product experience in @GoogleWorkspace, to help people build deeper connections and transform collaboration. https://cloud.google.com/...
@patrickmoorhead
Patrick Moorhead on x
Nice additions to Workspace including improvements to Meet, Chat, productivity suite, and the biggest upgrade, new “canvas”. https://t.co/axNYl1gDkA
@caseynewton
Casey Newton on x
PRAISE BE: After 20 years Google Docs will no longer default to a printer view when you start a new doc https://www.theverge.com/...
@ow
@ow on x
oh my god google *finally* realized nobody is working on an a4 page anymore and got rid of it https://blog.google/... https://twitter.com/...
@google
@google on x
Smart canvas is a new experience in @GoogleWorkspace that makes Docs, Sheets and Slides more flexible and connected, including: - @ mentions - Checklists - Pageless formats - Assisted writing - Emoji reactions in Docs 👏 - Present to Meet https://blog.google/... #GoogleIO https://…
@backlon
Dieter Bohn on x
Google Workspace turns to “smart chips” to weave Docs, Tasks, and Meet together. It's a huge update and portends further changes to come. There seems to be — get this — a coherent product roadmap for a Google product. https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@chrismessina
@chrismessina on x
Google Smart Canvas aka Notion by Google aka Google Wave 2021? #GoogleIO2021
@ow
@ow on x
wait did google just invent Notion with ‘Smart Canvas’? Sure looks like it https://twitter.com/...
@googlearts
@googlearts on x
Less than 30 minutes until the Blobs hit the stage at #GoogleIO! Are you as excited as we are? #BlobOpera 🎼https://youtube.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
@wongmjane
Jane Manchun Wong on x
@Techmeme did you mean... live blob of Google I/O?