Google’s AI-powered Smart Compose feature is now making its way out to G Suite users almost across the board in Google Docs, the company has announced. The search giant says that the feature is turned on by default. But it will only be available in English for the time being, with no timeline in place for other languages.
For clarity, Smart Compose is a long-standing AI feature from Google. It effectively utilizes a user’s writing style and history, alongside several other factors to offer up quick-entry suggestions while typing. In Google Docs, the company says that it will help save time, cut back on repetitive writing, and reduce spelling and grammar errors as well.
That’s on top of the already well-known perk of Smart Compose. Namely, that Smart Compose’s suggestions are intelligently based on the context of the overall text that’s being typed out.
Where else has Smart Compose been seen and what’s the timeline
Now, as suggested by the above description, Smart Compose is not an entirely new feature. The most common instance that’s been put in place is in Gmail. In fact, the email service has no fewer than two uses for the AI-driven suggestions.
The first is in the email body itself. There, the AI suggestions are based on the text the user has already input. It’s also based on phrasing that’s already commonly used by a given individual. But more prominent and interesting is its more recent addition to subject lines, early last year.
Summarily, after Gmail users have completed their email, Smart Compose offers up suggestions for subject lines. For clarity, that’s the subject that recipients will be greeted with when they first see they have a new email.
While not confirmed or hinted at just yet, it wouldn’t be too surprising for a similar Smart Compose feature to make its way over to Google Docs in the future either. In that case, the feature may be used for quickly composing document titles, freeing up even more time for busy enterprise workers.
In the meantime, this feature won’t land everywhere all at once either. Today’s rollout starts for Rapid Release domains. That will take up to 15 days to arrive and be usable for all users on those domains.
For those on Scheduled Release domains, the wait will be even longer. That’s not only because Google is scheduling that rollout to begin March 3, either. The company also says that release will be an “extended rollout” and that means it will “potentially” take more than 15 days before its visible for everybody on those domains.
This isn’t going to hit every user
The fact that Smart Compose is now available in Google Docs doesn’t necessarily mean that every user will have access. While it is said to be coming to all “G Suite customers” it’s explicitly stated in the company’s blog that won’t be the case.
That’s hardly surprising since an AI-driven quick-complete feature for text documents will arguably be the most impactful on the enterprise and business side of things. That’s also typically been where new G Suite-related features have landed first. But it does mean at least a bit of bad news for everybody else. For those with a personal Google account, the search giant expressly says it’s not being made available yet.