Google updates iOS versions of Docs, Sheets & Slides with iPad multitasking

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in iPad
Google on Wednesday released important updates to its Docs, Sheets, and Slides clients for iOS, finally giving iPad owners access to true multitasking with its productivity suite.




All three apps now support iOS 9's Slide Over and Split View. Slide Over allows users to briefly swipe in another app for small tasks like checking Twitter or jotting down notes, though only one app can be controlled at a time.

Split View allows two apps to run side-by-side, but works only on more recent hardware including the iPad Air 2, iPad mini 4, and 9.7- and 12.9-inch models of the iPad Pro.

Google's support is late in coming, since rival work suites from Apple and Microsoft have had iPad multitasking for some time. In fact iOS 9 is almost a year old, making it that long since the company could've added the technology.

The updates otherwise concentrate on bugfixes, though Docs users can now insert images and page breaks.

Docs, Sheets, and Slides are all free downloads for devices running iOS 8 or later.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 9
    sirlance99sirlance99 Posts: 1,293member
    Finally
  • Reply 2 of 9
    john.bjohn.b Posts: 2,742member
    Still no PIP for the YouTube iPad app?
    airmanchairman
  • Reply 3 of 9
    dingo6dingo6 Posts: 3member
    Just need the ability to make charts in sheets for a bonus 
  • Reply 4 of 9
    anantksundaramanantksundaram Posts: 20,404member
    There were iOS versions (let alone)!? Wow, that's news to me...

    I'll pass, though.
    edited August 2016
  • Reply 5 of 9
    kevin keekevin kee Posts: 1,289member
    Have been using these features with Pages and Numbers for a year.
    revenant
  • Reply 6 of 9
    airmanchairmanairmanchairman Posts: 358member
    john.b said:
    Still no PIP for the YouTube iPad app?
    The delay in adding multitasking to Docs, Sheets and Slides was pure nerdish spite, but P-in-P holdout is for advertising purposes. Implementing it would be tantamount to ad-blocking, cutting of Alphabet's life blood...
    edited August 2016
  • Reply 7 of 9
    airmanchairmanairmanchairman Posts: 358member
    kevin kee said:
    Have been using these features with Pages and Numbers for a year.
    In multitasking mode? If yes, I didn't think of trying that. Will try it with MS Office apps as well!
  • Reply 8 of 9
    warhorsewarhorse Posts: 4member
    john.b said:
    Still no PIP for the YouTube iPad app?
    The delay in adding multitasking to Docs, Sheets and Slides was pure nerdish spite, but P-in-P holdout is for advertising purposes. Implementing it would be tantamount to ad-blocking, cutting of Alphabet's life blood...
    Not necessarily nerdish spite. Unlike "the rival Microsoft and Apple suites" which have long had multi-tasking features in the desktop versions that were much easier to port to mobile, Google had no desktop version to reuse or borrow from, just their web version where multitasking is just opening a new browser window and their single task mobile apps. Google never wanted to support multi-tasking because they want their apps and services to use as few resources as possible. The goal for Android, for example, was to be able to run on devices with as little as 512 MB of RAM and 4 GB of storage. But Apple adopting multi-tasking for iOS forced their hand. Also since the Docs suite isn't one of their most heavily used apps that gets them a lot of revenue and attention anyway. Were it YouTube, Gmail, Chrome, Google Now or even Maps they would have prioritized it gotten it out a lot quicker. But Docs is not among their more heavily used apps on iOS, isn't responsible for much direct revenue and is expensive to maintain and support. So it is no surprise that they took their time with such a major change with one of their second-tier apps.
    edited August 2016 gatorguy
  • Reply 9 of 9
    kevin keekevin kee Posts: 1,289member
    airmanchairman said:
    kevin kee said:
    Have been using these features with Pages and Numbers for a year.
    In multitasking mode? If yes, I didn't think of trying that. Will try it with MS Office apps as well!
    Yup, both works pretty well on my iPad Pro. Even Numbers and Excel side by side, I can copy and paste across.
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