Google is really serious about its cloud apps. In a bid to raise the bar for such apps, the search giant has added in some very important features to Google Docs. Imagine being able to automatically transcribe messages while you say them. Voice transcription is a feature that many have been waiting for to come to various apps. And now, Google seems to have brought it in by incorporating it to Google Docs.
The voice transcription feature has been announced by the company on Wednesday, Sept 2, according to a report from Eweek. Voice transcription allows long conversations and brainstorming sessions over Docs to be recorded in text, so it's much easier to go over them and have everyone contribute to the discussion, without worrying about who's taking tabs of what's being discussed.
The voice typing feature is also easy to use. The Verge cites that there is no need for users to give practice sentences for the feature to work. Docs just need to be opened and tapped, and then the user can get started with talking. A huge plus point for the voice transcription function, as if it was not a big enough plus in itself, is that it reportedly works in about 40 languages. The feature works for Docs for Android and the web, as well as iOS.
Two other important updates rolled out for Google Docs are the new Research and Explore functions. The Research function enables users to cut and paste parts of articles or insert photos easily to put them into docs.
The process will require fewer touch movements. This works by clicking on Research on Docs' taskbar and typing in keywords. A window for the selected link will then open on the tablet and users can select parts of the reference to insert to Docs, without having to go back and forth between two windows.
Explore, on the other hand, helps users interpret the data they have kept in Google Sheets. All the user has to do is get the data into the sheet and indicate which part it wants to be explored. Upon highlighting this, the user will then click on Explore and details will automatically be interpreted with the use of the new function.
All three features work with Android and Windows and Mac PCs. Of course, Chrome should be the browser. Research and Explore still don't work with iOS devices.
