Editing your Google Docs on the go
With Google Docs, we're always trying to make you more productive—and part of that means making it possible for you to get things done from anywhere, at anytime. That's why we're excited that the new documents editor now supports editing on your mobile browser.
Context & Ripple Effects
Mobile access to Google Docs has arrived in stages: the original Docs mobile release in October 2007 was largely about reading, and it took until February 2009 for Google to bring add-and-edit capability to mobile spreadsheets. Documents lagged behind spreadsheets for most of that period.
With this announcement, the new documents editor finally closes that gap inside the mobile browser itself — no separate app required — covering iPhone, iPad and Android per Gizmodo's same-day pickup. It matters because it makes the browser, rather than a native client, the delivery mechanism for full document editing on the go.
First-order effects
- Users on iPhone, iPad and Android devices can edit documents directly in their mobile browsers starting immediately, removing the read-only limitation they had faced with documents since the 2007 mobile launch.
Second-order effects
- Rival web office suites are pushed toward matching browser-based mobile editing, since a document suite that stops at the desktop now looks incomplete against Docs' phone-and-tablet coverage.
Third-order effects
- If browser-delivered editing holds up on small screens, office productivity consolidates around cloud suites whose feature set is identical across devices — weakening any advantage held by native, per-device office applications.
The trend: Cloud office suites are erasing the line between desktop and mobile by making the browser, not a native app, the universal editing surface.