Google has been notorious for being late to the game with features promised in their Google Suite. Recently, the company announced that they would finally be introducing collapsible headings in their Google Docs application. This no doubt comes as a relief for Docs users who have been dealing with the lack of organization that collapsible sections could offer. By allowing documents to be organized and streamlined, there will be fewer distractions from the content.
The feature will soon be available for all Google Workspace and Personal users, but as of now, the feature is not yet ready to use. Despite the positive introduction of the feature, this begs the question of why it took Google until 2023 to catch up to what was already available in Microsoft 365 and even Office programs.
Furthermore, Google no longer serves as simply a productivity tool as it has recently set its focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. These moments of grandeur have taken away from the product’s simplicity and made it a more buzzword-driven platform.
Google has seemingly listened to this criticism as they have attempted to pair their buzzwords with more practical features in the form of “smart chips”. They are meant to make documents simpler by giving users the ability to link them to other documents, files, people, or events.
Thus, instead of prioritizing AI and machine learning advances it would likely benefit users more for Google to focus on convenience features and the seemingly mundane updates that are often overlooked. Making it easier to export images and having reorderable outlines are just a few changes that users are begging for. Furthermore, it is essential to keep the original article’s paragraph structure similar in order to retain the balance between what is mostly SEO-based and the human tone of the article.
In essence, Google needs to provide a user experience that is straightforward, efficient, and organized. After the recent addition of collapsible headings, it is hopeful that Google continues to prioritize more user-oriented computer creativity rather than flashy but hollow achievements that have yet to prove their value.
