Google Docs, Sheets and Slides Apps Updated With Spell Checker and Other Features

Google has recently updated the mobile versions of their Google Docs, Sheets and Slides apps with new features and significant improvements. The apps themselves used to be grouped together but were split out starting in April 2014 into individual apps to reduce the download time and storage requirements on smart phones.

The latest updates will help users who have smaller screen phones on either Android or iOS.

Screen Readers Now Supported

Screen readers can make it much easier when dealing with using apps on small screens. Both Android TalkBack and iOS VoiceOver screen reader services are now fully supported in the respective Android and iOS versions of each app. This will greatly help the visually impaired plus anyone who is finding reading difficult on their small screen device too. For the latter, there is also the magnification tool which may help.

Spell Checkers in Real-time

All documents now enjoy access to a real-time spell checkers to catch typos and genuinely misspelt words as they are tapped into the on-screen keyboard.

Hide Columns or Rows in Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets in the Sheets app have now been adjusted so that a user can hide a column or a row that they no longer wish to see. This a common feature in OpenOffice Sheets or Office Excel but not previously available in the Sheets spreadsheet app from Google.

TouchID Third Party Integration

Following the update to iOS which added third party access to the TouchID fingerprint scanner in the newer iPhone models, Google have now integrated fingerprint scanning for security when using Google Docs, Sheets or Sliders on either an iPhone or iPad which support the scanning within the device hardware.

Software updates are arriving on devices with any of the aforementioned apps installed over the next few days and for new users they can download the apps to enjoy the improvement to the user experience right away.