Google has been aggressively pushing for its own space in the productivity market dominated by Microsoft Office and Apple's iWork. The search company's latest move is the introduction of its Slides app for iOS, completing Google's trio of productivity apps for the Apple mobile operating system.
Docs, Sheets and Slides is the result of Google splitting its older Drive app into three separate apps to allow iPhone and iPad users to create word-based documents, spreadsheets and presentations using their iOS devices as well as devices by other manufacturers. With the new Slides app now available for download from the Apple App Store for free, users can create, view and edit their presentations with or without Internet access. They can also collaborate with remote colleagues to work on a presentation together.
"You can truly get stuff done from any device-your iPhone, iPad, Android phone, Android tablet, laptop or desktop computer," says Li-Wei Lee, software engineer at Google. "Any change you make on any of these devices is saved automatically, so you can pick up right where you left off any time, anywhere that you can sign in."
Google also updated its Docs and Sheets apps to allow users to open, edit and save Microsoft Word and Excel files in Docs and Sheets, giving Google a leg up in the race towards cross-platform domination. Users of Slides also have the ability to do the same with Microsoft PowerPoint files.
Docs, Sheets and Slides are available as individual free downloads from the App Store, while Microsoft's cloud-based Office 365 suite of productivity apps for iOS requires a monthly subscription. Apple's suite of iWork Pages, Numbers and Keynote are also available for free. Users who wish to download Google's productivity apps need to have a Gmail address and the latest version of iOS installed in their devices.
"With today's launch of the Slides app for iPhone & iPad and updates to the Docs and Sheets apps, we're delivering on our promise to make it possible for you to work with any file, on any device, any time," says Lee. "You can now create that grocery list, edit that spreadsheet, and update that slide deck with no problem."
Google first announced a brand new suite of productivity apps for enterprises in last summer's I/O developer conference, where Google's head of Android Sundar Pichai introduced Android for Work, which allows users to separate their personal and business data on their information while providing a variety of features to help users manage their professional data better. This includes a new and improved Google Drive for Work, which provides on-server and in-transit encryption server for all files and Suggested Edits to allow various users to comment on one file.
