(Cross-posted from the Google Docs Blog and Google Mobile Blog.)
Increasingly, people are using mobile phones to access information -- from email to web browsing to
editing documents. Part of getting work done on the go is being able to easily access, edit and share content, which is why we’re happy to announce the new
Google Docs app for Android.
The Docs app also allows you to upload content from your phone and open documents directly from Gmail. You can also add a widget to your home screen for easy access to three core tasks: jumping to your starred documents, taking a photo to upload, or creating a new document with one tap.
And my favorite feature: Using the app and your phone’s camera, you can turn photos with text into editable Google documents with the power of
optical character recognition (OCR). Just create a new ‘Document from Photo' or select the camera icon from the widget, and your converted document will appear in your documents list shortly after you snap the picture. You can also convert photos already stored on your phone by
sharing them with the Google Docs app. OCR does a pretty good job capturing unformatted text in English but won't recognize handwriting or some fonts - stay tuned, it will get better over time!
The Google Docs app is currently available in English and works on Android 2.1+ phones. Try it out by scanning the QR code below or by visiting
Android Market.
Let us know what you think of the new Google Docs Android app in our
forum.
Finally! I've been waiting for this patiently for a couple of years. The OCR feature looks very good ... kudos to the team!
ReplyDeleteSounds spiffy, but being able to see last person to edit, and when would be extremely useful on the collaborative writing projects I use docs for. Would let me know when to check for edits or when someone has gotten around to proofreading one of my documents. Notifications would be a great addition as well. Although...there may be a gmail type system in place for edits. There was for Wave. Thanks for reading if you did.
ReplyDeleteAlso, id like to see a project framework system, something along the lines of a profile for projects, including team members, list of project related documents, and integration with my google calender. You might have some thing like this already, and I just haven't noticed it within your massive catalog of products.
Cmoseley,
Novice app developer and colloborative writer and project manager.
Now I can get rid of Think Office.
ReplyDeleteLimited success with the OCR but what a great feature. Are there any tips on how to get the best results?
ReplyDeleteThank you very much; am moving lock, stock, and two smoking barrels to Google Docs :-)
ReplyDeleteThe only issue i have noticed is that the PDF is very grainy on my Samsung Galaxy Tab. The text conversion feature is neat, but all the text isn't converted.
For instance, in a recent flight ticket stored on gDocs, i couldn't see the departure time in the PDF, while the converted text didn't have that portion :-(