Google added new features to Google Docs to help improve people's writing.
The popular tech giant recently announced it added a few new assistive writing features to its online word processor, which would assist users in creating "impactful documents" faster.
Google Docs' new updates will be free to use by all end users and will be available for use in the coming weeks.
Google Docs Assistive Writing Features Details
According to Google's announcement, the new assistive writing features will provide Google Docs users with suggestions for alternate wording, active voice use, sentence structure conciseness, inclusive language, and changes for potential inappropriate words.
Users will see these suggestions appear as they type, guiding them when there are opportunities to avoid repeated or unnecessary words.
For instance, a suggestion to improve sentence conciseness will appear when a sentence's impact can still be improved on.
Additionally, when the new assistive writing feature detects an inappropriate or discriminatory language, a replacement will be suggested to help users to make their writing more inclusive and appropriate for their audience.
Tone and style suggestions use a purple underling to help users determine which suggestion is which.
Google expects that these suggestions will help users diversify their writing while ensuring usage of the best applicable words for their documents. It also hopes that they elevate people's writing styles and "make more dynamic, clear, inclusive, and concise documents."
As for who can control the feature, individual users will always have the feature on by default, but it can be disabled at a later time.
To do so, users should clock on Google Docs' Tools tab and then select "spelling" and "underline errors." Doing so will make the checkmark disappear, indicating that the suggestions have been turned off for all documents.
Meanwhile, company employees using accounts connected to their company's Google Workspace account cannot disable the feature on their own, as that obligation falls to workspace administrators, per The Verge.
Google Docs Assistive Writing Features Availability
The Verge also mentioned that Google will not be making Google Docs' new assistive writing features available to all of its Workspace plans. "Tone and Style" suggestions will be available for Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, and Education Plus subscribers.
Meanwhile, "Word Warnings" will be available to Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus, and Teaching and Learning Up plans subscribers.
These limitations mean that someone with a basic plan like Google Workspace Essentials will not be able to enjoy either feature set.
However, there are third-party writing assistants that function the same way as Google Docs' new assistive writing features, such as Grammarly, which was able to integrate with Google Docs to do the same job.
Whether Google Docs' new features will reduce the need for such third-party services is still up for debate.
