Google LLC is making its G Suite productivity tools easier to use on smartphones, adding various new features and functionality to the mobile versions of its apps.

In a blog post today, Rany Ng, director of product management at G Suite, said the growing trend of remote working means that more and more people have to rely on G Suite’s mobile apps to get their work done.

“That’s why we’re continually improving mobile experiences across G Suite, helping you efficiently create, collaborate, and communicate with your team, from the palm of your hand,” Ng said.

Today’s updates include a new viewing experience in Slides, which is essentially G Suite’s version of Microsoft Corp.’s more familiar PowerPoint. Google will introduce a “vertically scrollable” stream of slides with new “pinch-to-zoom” functionality that’s meant to help users review and edit slides faster. Android users can expect to see this appear in the next few weeks, while iOS users will have to wait a few more months, Ng said.

Meanwhile, the Docs word processor app is getting a new feature called “link previews” that details dynamic information about the content of each link in a document, including the latest activity for Drive Files and titles and descriptions of public links. The link previews pop up when a user clicks on a link, and gives them the option of opening it or staying with the document they’re working on. Ng said this feature is already available on iOS and will roll out to Android users in the coming weeks.

Docs, Slides and also Sheets, which is G Suite’s take on Microsoft Excel, now support a new “Dark Theme” on Android, with iOS support to be added in the coming months. That’s to make it easier on user’s eyes when working in a low-light environment, Ng said.

Ng also announced some new features that should make it easier for smartphone users to create content and collaborate on existing documents using G Suite’s mobile apps. They include the “Smart Compose” function that was first added to Gmail last year. With Smart Compose, Google basically tries to predict what the user will write next, and allows them to auto-complete sentences with a simple swipe, rather than writing out all of the text themselves.

“Now, we’re bringing the power of Smart Compose to mobile, making it even faster and easier to write documents on the go,” Ng wrote. “Smart Compose in Docs will roll out to G Suite customers over the next few weeks, on both Android and iOS.”

Other new features include “Office Editing” in Docs, Sheets and Slides, which makes it possible to edit, comment and collaborate on Microsoft Office files using G Suite’s tools, and a new interface for adding and reading comments.

“With a larger, clearer commenting interface that makes it easier to scroll through and respond to comments and a quick access button to reply and @mention others, having a focused discussion with comments will be even easier,” Ng said.

The Office Editing feature will appear on Android in a few weeks and on iOS later in the year, while the updated comments interface is already available on Android, with iOS to follow later this year.

Last of all, Ng said it’s now possible to respond to comments on Docs, Sheets and Slides directly from the Gmail app.

“Instead of receiving individual email notifications when you’re mentioned in a comment in Docs, Sheets, or Slides, you’ll now see an up-to-date comment thread in Gmail, and you’ll be able to reply or resolve the comment, directly within the message,” Ng said.

Images: Google