Thursday, March 31, 2022

More assistive writing suggestions in Google Docs

Update

[April 1, 2022]: We have updated this post with additional information about these features, including admin controls and feature availability. 


What’s changing 

We’ve added several new assistive writing features in Google Docs, which will provide a variety of tone and style suggestions to help you create impactful documents faster. Specifically, you’ll see suggestions for: 

  • Word choice: More dynamic or contextually relevant wording 
  • Active voice: Active rather than passive voice 
  • Conciseness: More concise phrases 
  • Inclusive language: More inclusive words or phrases 
  • Word warnings: Reconsidering potentially inappropriate words 

Who’s impacted 

End users 

Why you’d use it 

These new features offer a variety of stylistic and writing suggestions as you compose documents. Suggestions will appear as you type and help guide you when there are opportunities to avoid repeated or unnecessary words, helping diversify your writing and ensuring you’re using the most effective word for the situation. 

You’ll see suggestions when there are opportunities to structure a sentence with an active voice or when a sentence can be more concise, helping to make your writing more impactful. Potentially discriminatory or inappropriate language will be flagged, along with suggestions on how to make your writing more inclusive and appropriate for your audience. 

We hope this will help elevate your writing style and make more dynamic, clear, inclusive, and concise documents. 

Getting started 

  • Admins: 
    • These features will be ON by default and can be turned off in the admin console for eligible select Google Workspace education editions — see Availability details below. 
    • In the coming weeks, we will introduce these admin controls for the remaining eligible Google Workspace editions —see Availability details below. For those editions, these features will be ON by default and can be turned off at the domain, OU, and group level. 
  • End users: 
    • This feature will be ON by default and can be disabled by the user. Visit the Help Center to learn more about managing writing suggestions in Google Docs. 
    • When typing in Docs, tone and style suggestions are indicated with a purple underline. Selecting the underline will show a brief description for the suggestion — you can accept or reject the suggestion from here. 


Rollout pace

Update: [May 20, 2022]: We have paused rollout for these features while we evaluate and optimize performance. For users enrolled in the alpha for these features, your experience will not change.

Availability 

  • Word choice, Active voice, Conciseness, Inclusive language: 
    • Available to Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus 
    • Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Education Fundamentals, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Education Standard, Frontline, Nonprofits, G Suite Basic and Business customers 
  • Word Warnings: 
    • Available to Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus, Teaching and Learning Upgrade 
    • Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Frontline, Nonprofits, G Suite Basic and Business customers 

Resources