Google unveils exciting updates to make collaboration seamless

You can now present your content to a Google Meet call on the web directly from the Doc, Sheet, or Slide where you're already working with your team.

"In the fall, we're bringing Meet directly to Docs, Sheets, and Slides on the web, so people can actually see and hear each other while they're collaborating," said Erika Trautman, Director, Google Workspace, on the first day of the virtual Google I/O developer conference.

Google currently offers live captions in five languages, with more on the way.

"We're introducing live translations of captions later this year, starting with English-language live captions translated into Spanish, Portuguese, French, or German, with many more languages to follow," the company announced.

Teams can now jump from a discussion in Google Chat directly to building content together.

"Creating and editing Sheets and Docs from Google Chat rooms is already live in our web experience, and we'll enable it for Slides in the coming weeks," Google said.

Google also introduced new smart chips in Docs for recommended files and meetings.

"With our new pageless format in Docs, you'll be able to remove the boundaries of a page to create a surface that expands to whatever device or screen you're using, making it easier to work with wide tables, large images or detailed feedback in comments," the company said.

To gauge the team's reactions as you work together, Google is also introducing emoji reactions in Docs in the next few months.

Starting this week in Docs, checklists are available on web and mobile.

You'll soon be able to assign checklist items to other people and see these action items in Google Tasks, making it easier for everyone to manage a project's To Do list.

"Coming soon, we'll also introduce table templates in Docs. Topic-voting tables will allow you to easily gather team feedback while project-tracker tables will help you capture milestones and statuses on the fly," Google said.