Google Just Updated Its Productivity Suite To Raise The Stakes With Microsoft Office

Google just revamped its productivity suite with updates to its Docs and Sheets apps, as well as with the launch of Google Slides, it's PowerPoint-esque presentation maker for Android (and soon iOS).

Docs, Sheets, and Slides are Google's free solution to Microsoft's not-so-free Office Suite, and the new updates now even let you edit Office files without needing to convert them. This means that if you're working with someone who uses Microsoft Office, you can make changes to a document and seamlessly send it back to them in its original format.

The company is also launched a Suggested Edits mode for desktop (coming soon to mobile) that lets multiple people make edits that the others can then either accept or reject. Microsoft Word has long had the same feature, and this new addition is one more way Google can further its quest to prove its productivity suite can offer the average user anything that Microsoft's can - for free.

Google said Wednesday there are 190 million active users on the company's productivity suite and cloud service Drive.

Docs, Sheets, and Slides - whether you're using them on mobile or desktop - will also have full offline support so you can view, edit, and create files even when you don't have an internet connection.