Don’t be fooled by the iterative-sounding nature of this update: being able to edit spreadsheets on mobile devices – the functionality which Google has just now introduced in its mobile Google Drive applications – is actually a major upgrade in the eyes of many users.
The update brings the cloud-based alternative that is Google Drive (formerly Docs), more on par with native experiences, like Apple’s iWork suite, for example.
Google announced the Android version of the update on its official blog this afternoon, touting the newly added ability to create new spreadsheets or edit existing ones from the new release of the Google Drive application. (Side note: did we know that Google is calling Google Drive spreadsheets “Google Sheets” now? Did I miss the memo on that? That’s catchy.) In addition, users can switch fonts, resize columns and sort data, says Google, and other users’ edits will also be shown in real-time.
While the news was promoted primarily on the Android blog, an App Store update shows that similar functionality has come to the iOS version of the application as well. Both mobile apps also now support better text formatting when copying and pasting from one Google Doc to another (the apps support rich text copy-paste, that is), but Android users can edit the text within tables, too.
Google Drive isn’t the only Google app to get a boost on iOS today either – a new release of Google Chrome for iOS adds support for opening PDFs in other apps, Passbook support, and more.
You can grab the updated Google Drive for Android here on Google Play or the iOS version here in the App Store.