It makes sense that the Google suite of products would have a nicer version on Android than on iPhone, right? The newly released Google Docs app for Android is certainly a testament to that.
Google added the ability to edit your Google Docs on your mobile devices last fall, a huge boon for those of us who tend to work on the go and who need to be able to access, edit, and share our work via our phones. But the mobile Web interface has still felt a little clunky, and a good reminder that really smartphones aren’t designed for word processing.
The new Google Docs app, now available for Android, makes the process a lot less painful (well, minus the fact that you’re still working on with a small screen and keyboard, of course). While composition of new documents or spreadsheets may still be challenging, the app makes it very easy for you to share items with others and open files that you receive via Gmail.
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It’s also incredibly simple to upload documents to Google Docs via your phone. This isn’t simply a matter of uploading files (although that is an option). The new app is also integrated with the Android camera so if you snap a picture of a document, the app will translate it into text via OCR, using the new “Document from Photo” option. Of course, OCR isn’t always completely accurate, but it’s still a great way to easily input information into your Google Docs account.
Note that there’s still no support for offline editing. And when you first load the app, it will take a while to sync your accounts. But once it does so, you’ll find you have access to all the files you store there. The app is available now via the Android Market.
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