What that you must know
- Google is including native assist for digital signatures in Google Docs and Google Drive.
- The perform, which was restricted to alpha testing in June, has now been launched in beta.
- The corporate is within the means of rolling out the brand new functionality to particular person Workspace customers.
Digital signatures are an more and more widespread solution to signal authorized paperwork or for corporations to retailer or handle paperwork. So, it’s no shock that Google is including native assist for digital signatures in Google Docs and Google Drive. The tech large introduced an open beta of the new-ish eSignature functionality on Google Workspace.
The brand new perform — which was restricted to alpha testing final June and is now launched in beta — is meant for customers to request, add, and observe digital signatures all from throughout the cloud-based productiveness software program.
“To assist streamline this workflow, we’re natively integrating eSignature in Google Docs, permitting you to request and add Signatures to official contracts, straight in Google Docs,” Google stated in a press release.
At this level, it’s nothing fancy because the perform proper now consists of an digital signature enter subject that customers can add straight inside their paperwork.
Nevertheless, Google explains that it expects so as to add different capabilities later this yr, together with an audit path to trace signatures in Google Docs; the flexibility to deal with a number of signers, in addition to non-Gmail customers; and, lastly, the flexibility to provoke digital signatures from PDFs saved on Drive.
There already exists a mess of platforms that supply digital signatures, together with cloud-based choices similar to DocuSign and Dropbox, which acquired HelloSign in 2019, in addition to native packages like Adobe Acrobat.
So, Google’s new eSignature perform could not precisely be breaking new floor, however it’s a welcome transfer by the corporate because it means customers hopefully gained’t have to modify between totally different apps or tabs as they work on contracts. With this new characteristic, requesting and including digital signatures can be a part of the workflow for Workspace customers.
For the reason that beta launch on August 8, the tech large has been rolling out the brand new functionality to particular person Workspace customers over the subsequent 15 days. Group customers can use the characteristic as nicely by having their Workspace admins apply for the beta model.
