By Jason Snell

March 8, 2016 10:04 AM PT

Google apps take a baby step forward on iPad

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

I’ve been part of the chorus¹ complaining about Google’s very slow support for iPad features in the suite of Google iOS apps.

So it’s only fair that I note today’s app updates, which bring iPad Pro support to Google Docs and Google Sheets. Finally Google users with iPad Pros can edit text and spreadsheets at full resolution with a native keyboard, rather than the scaled-up interface we’ve been using up until now. (I’ve actively avoided using these apps on my iPad Pro for this reason.)

But I feel like I must also note Google’s continued lack of support for some other key iOS 9 features, announced nine months ago and shipped back in September. Neither Sheets nor Docs supports Split View, which greatly diminishes their functionality on the iPad Pro. Split View is useful because you can be working on a document in one app while doing research or having a conversation in another app.

Also, Google’s YouTube app still hasn’t been updated to support Picture in Picture, another fantastic feature of iOS 9 that lets you watch video in a floating window while using other apps. (The workaround for this, apparently, is to delete the YouTube app and just view everything in Safari, which supports Picture in Picture.)

So, thanks for the iPad Pro support, Google. But there’s a lot more work to be done here.

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