Google’s Android 12L helps makes Android tablets a bit more useful with cool gestures and more, but Google now has more up its sleeves to help make these devices even better. Announced on July 25 were some changes to the Google Workspace apps on Android centered on better productivity.
Benefiting the Surface Duo, there are three core things in these Workspace apps that you can look out for. The first is the ability to drag and drop files. Second up are optimizations in Google Drive so that you can open two Drive windows side by side. The final big change is new keyboard shortcuts, for large-screen tablets with keyboards.
Diving a bit deeper, Google says it has now built new ways to use Google Workspace apps when you have two windows open on a large screen device. You’ll be able to drag text or images from apps, such as Chrome or Sheets, and drop that content right into an existing document or spreadsheet cell. In addition, you can upload files by dragging and dropping them into an app, too.
With the Google Drive optimizations, you’ll be able to open two Drive windows side by side by just tapping on a file and choosing the “open in new Window” menu option. Finally, with keyboard shortcuts, you’ll now be able to use the shortcuts from your PC or Chromebook such as select, cut, copy, paste, undo and redo, to quickly navigate without going through menus with your fingers and the touch screen.
Google said it is planning to roll out these changes over the next few weeks. The changes will apply to both personal Google Accounts as well as enterprise ones.