Google rolls out more drag and drop support in its apps plus mouse support for Docs on Android tablets

Android apps such as Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides, as well as Keep, have had a significant number of new features and functionalities added to them over the course of the past several months. This has all been in an effort to give users a great experience on devices with larger screens running Android 12L. A stepping stone, if you will, in Google’s quest and commitment to make Android on Tablets a viable way for users to be productive. To further this commitment, Google is releasing the below new updates this week to Workspace Android apps:

Google Slides drag and drop into other applications

You will now be able to easily drag text and images from Google Slides into other Android apps. This will be helpful to multi-taskers that want to re-use the same content across apps. To accomplish this, follow the below steps:

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open a presentation in the Google Slides app.
2. Open a different app in split screen mode.
3. Tap and hold the object or text you want to move.
4. Drag the content onto the slides app to paste it.

Google Slides Help Center

Improved drag and drop in Google Drive

A few months back, “drag and drop” within the Google Drive app became a reality. This feature enabled users to swiftly upload files by dragging and dropping them into the application. This functionality will be improved this week so that you will be able to move files and folders around in your Drive by dragging and dropping them to new locations, exactly where you want them to be. This can be accomplished in either the two-window view or the single-app view, depending on which works best for you. Below are the steps:

1. Touch and hold the item.
2. Drag the item into another app.
3. Lift your finger to drop the item.

Google Drive Help

Full mouse support in Google Docs

When using Google Docs on Android, you will now have full mouse support, which will mirror the behavior of the mouse on the web. As an example of this functionality, instead of panning the entire document, clicking and dragging across the text will now select that specific portion of the document.

It is exciting to see all the new features that are promptly making their way to Android tablets. I fully intend on investing in a Pixel tablet next year and will definitely be thankful to have all these productivity features available to me then. For now, it appears that the best option for an Android tablet running version 12L is the Galaxy Tablet, which seems like a great choice considering its reviews. Let’s see if I can hold off until next year before I purchase my next tablet.