Mountain View, California — It looks like Google Docs has just gained promotion in the realm of Google+, and continues to roll out new features for all of its services. Today, the Google+ team announced that Google Docs are now part of the core Hangout experience, and can be accessed with the click of a single button from the main hangout screen.
Now having graduated, sharing Google Docs within Hangouts while sporting extras to the core Hangouts experience is now available for all users:
From Google+: “Last year we launched Hangouts with extras as a way to preview certain hangout features. Google Docs integration was one such extra, and the Google+ community has used it for all sorts of awesome — from trip planning and lecture notes to doodling and charades. Today I’m happy to announce that we are graduating Google Docs to the core Hangouts experience for all users.”
Here is what the feature looks like within a Google+ Hangout:
View and collaboratively edit multiple docs inside your Hangout. Now all it takes is a simple click on the “Docs” button in your hangout, and you are ready to collaborate on a document live — not only yourself, but with other people face to face as well. You are able to add an existing document, or upload a new one, and added documents can be viewed in a list on the left-hand side for easier viewing.
Apart from that, Google+ Hangouts with Extras were the 94-97th “improvements” that Google disclosed when Google+ was still in its infancy. But the features available for Google+ Hangouts make collaborating with those who are scattered around the globe simple, and Google Docs integration is the perfect addition to go along with screensharing.
On the other hand, Google+ Hangouts has already started to catch on for businesses — either within the office or outside it. By adding collaborative doc-editing functionality to the core experience can only make Hangouts much more useful for this purpose. Better yet, being able to shuffle back and forth within a work document while carrying on a video conversation is also huge step forward for digital workplaces.