ISSUE 88 • ANDROID ADVISOR 13Soltero
didn’t call out
Smart Canvas
as a separate
app, competing
with existing
Workspace apps
like Docs or
Sheets. Instead,
he positioned
Smart Canvas
as more of a
conceptual
experience,
guiding the
evolutionof
workingwithintheGoogleWorkspace
appsovertime.Someusersbegan
comparingSmartCanvastoNotion,
a subscriptionserviceformacOSthat
usesthesamesortofinclusivedesign
asGoogle’sownSmartCanvas.
SmartCanvaslookslikea document,
butincludeslinkstopeopleandother
files that can be linked via the Canvas.
(Googlecallsthese“smartchips”,and
theycanbereferencedthroughan‘@’
symbolcombinedwiththerelevant
personordocument.)Solteroshowed
a referencethatlookedsomewhat
similartoGoogleKeep’schecklists,as
wellasintegratedtablesthatcouldbe
createdwithinthedocument– again
withreferences outsidethedocument.
Soltero’sdemonstrationincluded
featuresthatGooglehastalkedabout
before,suchasinclusivelanguage
thatwouldchange‘chairman’to
‘chairperson’.(Microsoft,too,has
includedthisin itsownMicrosoft
Editortools.) Google also offered an
update on the integration timeline it
began putting forward last year: you
can now share a Slide, Doc or Sheet
document within a Google Meet call.
Beginning this autumn, Meet will be
directly integrated into Docs, Sheets
and Slides. A related Companion Mode
will also give each member of that Meet
call their own dedicated video window,
if they want it, so they’ll always feel like
part of the conversation, Soltero said.Google will soon begin integrating Workspace and Meet, so that you’ll
be able to launch Meet from, say, Google Docs.