Google Inc. has finally kicked off the latest edition of its highly anticipated developer event Google I/O, and that too, after a year of being MIA as it cancelled its in-person event last year. The tech giant had quite a few announcements to make, and one of them was “Smart Canvas”.
The product is a set of collaborative tools, which are capable of working together to bring about easier performance of workspace tasks. It allows users to come up with new ideas and plans, work on collaborative documents together, through Google’s extensive suite of collaborative applications, and even communicate directly and without hassles, through Google Meet.
The aim of these new features is to help users connect in a much quicker and easier way with each other, and to continue working within Google’s ecosystem, without the need for any other application.
One of the main highlights of the offering will be some brand new features that will be added to the Google documents suite, including the likes of Google Sheets, Docs, and Slides. This includes a new algorithm which will enable users to get access to another user’s details, such as their contact information and job position, in addition to their name, when they @mention said user. This will be made possible through the use of smart chips, which are also being rolled out for facilitating users to keep tabs on recommended meetings and documents on Google Docs, for now. Soon enough, the feature will also be made available on Google Sheets.
Another feature which will be made available will be better language and writing recommendations on the platform’s assisted writing tool. This particular tool will allow users to gain a better insight into better vocabulary, as well as socially more acceptable terms.
However, the feature that has really been grabbing eyeballs is inclusion of support for live captions and translations on Google Meet, as well as the ability to present screen on Meet directly though Docs, Slides, or Sheets.
That’s not all though. The page layout on Docs will be completely eliminated, so as to remove page boundaries (which can often seem annoying to many users), and connected checklists (again in Docs), which can be used to sign items to other users, and to keep tabs on the action being taken on these items through Google Tasks. Another interesting feature will be the availability of emojis on Docs, and now, users will also have the liberty to include data from Calendar meeting invites. A Timeline view, along with better analysis features will be provided to Sheets, while Docs will also be getting some brand new Table templates. Another feature will give users the ability to create Sheets, Slides or Docs files, directly through Google Chat Rooms.
