Google Drive add-ons bring more features to Docs and Sheets

By Alex Dobie
last updated

New functionality from third-party organizations

Google has today announced the arrival of add-ons for Google Drive, bringing new capabilities from partner developers to its web-based productivity apps. Activated from the new "Add-ons" menu when editing a document or spreadsheet, add-ons are available from a variety of developers and accessible throughout all your Google Docs or Sheets once you've plugged them in. There are already a few dozen add-ons available, including Merge by Mailchimp, Avery Label Merge and EasyBib bibliography creator, as well as a selection from Google itself, and the company says more are coming in the future.

Right now you'll need to use the web interface to get the most out of Google Drive add-ons, as the add-on menu isn't available in the Android app. Nevertheless, add-ons could allow Google to further close the feature gap between Drive and desktop-based office apps, such as Microsoft Office, with optional extras like easy label printing, table-of-contents generation and builtin translation.

To try out Google Drive add-ons, load any document or spreadsheet and take a look at the "Add-ons" menu.

Source: Google Drive

Alex Dobie
Alex Dobie
Executive Editor

Alex was with Android Central for over a decade, producing written and video content for the site, and served as global Executive Editor from 2016 to 2022.

10 Comments
  • Merge by MailChimp is going to be useful add-on for me
  • That EasyBib add-on might be very useful Posted via Android Central App
  • +1 Posted via Android Central App
  • Yea the easy bib add-on is gonna be such a time saver for me. good job google.
  • This is nice, I'm waiting for add-ons. Posted via Android Central App
  • Very cool, awesome to see the expansion of content Posted via Android Central App
  • Is there a dedicated Chromebook section in the forums, or do I keep missing it? Or, perhaps, it's not there because it's not Android? edit: Nevermind, found them towards the very bottom. For some reason on the Android Central App I didn't appear to have all of the different forums, only some of them. Maybe I missed a pagination or something.
  • *Possible Google Docs add-on for word prediction, and auto complete* I’ve had my Nexus 10 for some time, and I absolutely love the word prediction and auto complete of the stock Android keyboard. I just tried Google Docs recently, and I was surprised to learn that there was no word completion, especially since the search engine has such amazing word completion. It doesn’t have the word prediction of Android, and that’s okay. However, I thought that Google Docs could be trained to learn from you. With Microsoft Word, and LibreOffice, you can train them, and have them build a collection of completed words to finish or partially typed words. Android’s word prediction in Google Docs could be a great way to get people to try Google Docs. If SwiftKey, Fleksy, Swype or Android came out with an auto correct, word prediction, and auto complete Google Docs add-on, I’d buy it.
  • I rarely use Google Docs but I just created a document via QuickOffice on my Nexus 10 and SwiftKey works as expected in that it provides prediction, completion and correction as it does with any other app.
  • The add-on menu is still not showing up here. Is this being rolled out over some time, or should it be available now? I'm using Google Apps Free with danish language.