For anyone who has ever wanted the ability to provide direct feedback on Google Docs, Google announced on Tuesday the launch of a new markup feature for Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and personal Google accounts, allowing users to write directly on Google Docs with a stylus or finger. The new feature includes several pen colors and standard markings (black, blue, red, green, yellow), and erasing. If you don't like any of these colors, you can add your own.
There are so many use cases for such a feature across ages, industries, and professional and personal work. Google is calling it particularly good for "educators providing feedback on their students' connections, reports, and short stories." Anecdotally, I cannot underestimate how useful this feature can be for students and professors in creative writing.
It merges the old-fashioned way of sharing printed copies of your work with modern computing technologies and classroom management platforms that can integrate with Google Drive, such as Canvas or Blackboard. But you'll never have to worry about lugging a huge stack of paper for class on workshop day—or running out of printing credits at the library. (Flashback to undergrad, circa 2006, when my broke self started charging students for printing course materials at the library.)
There is also the tactile aspect of this new feature; many of us creative writers prefer to write developmental comments by hand on our colleagues' work, not only because it's more personal, but also because Google Docs' editing and commenting system can clutter the page quickly. The contrast of printed text and handwritten notes on the same page can make it easier for the writer receiving feedback to digest the information. Especially if you write in a quirky color. (Shoutout to Alice and her blue gel pens for turning constructive criticism into fun.)
But there's a glaring issue with its launch: manual comments are only available on Android devices. For Windows, macOS, iOS, ChromeOS users, and even Chrome browser on any of these devices, they only have the option to view documents with markup, and display, hide, and delete them. So this narrows down the list of compatible devices to Android phones and tablets. Many K-12 students use Chromebooks without touch screens provided by the school for writing and feedback tasks, and as students grow older, the likelihood of them having a Windows or macOS laptop increases.
There's another problem: in the past ten years, I can count the number of times I've seen a student or undergraduate colleague writing on a tablet or 2-in-1 with one hand. So even though Google has created a great feature that can serve educators and students in and out of the classroom, most of them will not have compatible devices.
The rollout of Google's new feature began on February 27 for users enrolled in Rapid Release. Users under the Google Standard edition will start seeing the new feature on March 11. Each rollout will last about 15 days.
If you're not sure about your distribution channel, from the admin console go to Menu > Account > Account Settings > Preferences > Release Preferences > Check for new features.
