Smart Compose autocomplete feature will write your Google Docs for you

By Trevor Mogg Published November 22, 2019

If you’re an avid user of Smart Compose in Gmail, you may be interested to know that the handy autocomplete feature is coming to G Suite’s Docs, with a beta version already available for some users.

If Smart Compose passed you by, the A.I.-powered feature aims to speed up your typing by offering up phrases — right in the body of the email — that are based on your writing style. It can also help to reduce spelling and grammar errors in your text.

Recommended Videos

When you see a phrase pop up that you were about to type, or that fits well with what you were about to say, then you can quickly drop it in before continuing to compose your message.

As a simple example, you might start typing, “Haven’t seen … ” at which point Smart Compose could offer to complete it with “you in a while.” Or, say, if you’re contacting someone about an upcoming event, the feature will probably suggest phrases regarding time of day or the location, and use the kind of appropriate language that you’d expect with an invitation.

While emails may generally be more relaxed and less formal in terms of the kind of language used, Smart Compose for Docs will need to consider more complex writing styles and terminology, which is most likely why the feature hasn’t yet properly arrived for Google’s browser-based, Word-like software.

Smart Compose launched for the desktop version of Gmail in 2018 before coming to some Android devices earlier this year. Of course, if you find the constant appearance of suggested phrases irritating, or you’d prefer to use your brain while you’re composing your message rather than let Google write half of it for you, you can always turn the feature off in your device’s settings.

Google hasn’t said when it hopes to release a public version of Smart Compose for Docs, but a beta version (English only for the time being) is available for G Suite administrators to try right now.

If you’re interested to learn more about how to use the Smart Compose feature for Gmail, take a moment to cast your eyes over this short guide from Digital Trends.

Topics

Contributing Editor

Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

Computing

This new Google Docs feature is exactly what I’ve always wanted

Text box in Google Docs on a laptop.

As a writer of a certain age, I've lived a lot of life in Google Docs. It's where my first drafts go, but it's also where my crazy ideas, unhinged brainstorming, and research dumps go.
There’s so many conveniences about Google Docs that make it my go-to for word processing, but let’s be honest: It’s still fairly barebones, especially when it comes to organizing and managing different files within Google Drive. But this new feature makes all of that much easier, keeping it all contained all within Docs itself.
It’s called Document Tabs, which you may have already noticed floating just to the left of your document.

The idea is simple: It lets you create multiple documents within a single Docs file. Create as many “tabs” or separate documents as a single project might need, and switch between them extremely fast. That accessibility to them is really where the gold is. No more switching between different browser tabs.
It’s even more handy on mobile, of course, where switching applications or tabs is even more cumbersome. Here, you’ll find Document Tabs hovering just at the bottom of the screen with some simple arrows to flip between your different tabs. All we need now is a simple gesture to be added to flip between them even more seamlessly.
Document Tabs takes the place of the old outlining system, which would grab headers and automatically create a table of contents around them. I used this frequently, but it was pretty finicky. More than that, it resulted in overly long documents that I still found myself scrolling through.
Document Tabs is a really elegant solution to that problem. Whether it’s segmenting chapters in a book, multiple aspects of a project, or even just different parts of an article, it’s already become an extremely useful outlining and productivity tool for me.
It even had a pretty clean way of converting the tabs when you need to export. All the tabs do is combine down into one document, but they’re sectioned off with titles and some basic formatting. That’s not going to be ideal in every situation, of course, so it’s something to keep in mind if you need to export and share it with someone outside of Docs.
At the very least, though, it’s worth trying out. And if you’re a Google Docs fiend like I am, I have a feeling you’ll get quite a lot out of it.

Mobile

Your Gmail app will soon help protect you from scams

Moto G 5G (2024) in Sage Green showing Gmail.

Email scams are nothing new. The old Nigerian prince con has been around long enough that it's become a meme, but more modern scams can be a lot harder to pick out. According to statistics, nearly 3.4 billion phishing emails are sent per day. Gmail will soon implement a feature on its mobile platform that puts a checkmark beside verified senders to help users tell what's legit — and what possibly isn't — at a glance.

The feature already exists on the Gmail desktop website, but with over half of all users accessing their Gmail accounts from a mobile app, it's a welcome addition. It utilizes a standard called Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) and a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC). If an email contains these marks, it's highly unlikely they come from a malicious source.

Computing

Microsoft Word vs. Google Docs

A person using a laptop that displays various Microsoft Office apps.

For the last few decades, Microsoft Word has been the de facto standard for word processors across the working world. That's finally starting to shift, and it looks like one of Google's productivity apps is the heir apparent. The company's Google Docs solution (or to be specific, the integrated word processor) is cross-platform and interoperable, automatically syncs, is easily shareable, and perhaps best of all, is free.

However, using Google Docs proves it still has a long way to go before it can match all of Word's features -- Microsoft has been developing its word processor for over 30 years, after all, and millions still use Microsoft Word. Will Google Docs' low barrier to entry and cross-platform functionality win out? Let's break down each word processor in terms of features and capabilities to help you determine which is best for your needs.
How does each word processing program compare?
To put it lightly, Microsoft Word has an incredible advantage over Google Docs in terms of raw technical capability. From relatively humble beginnings in the 1980s, Microsoft has added new tools and options in each successive version. Most of the essential editing tools are available in Google Docs, but users who are used to Word will find it limited.