SaaS Updates Summary: May 2-6

The highlights from last week’s SaaS updates include new hover gestures for Windows phones, and new exciting features for Google Keyboard for Android. Google Slides has released a mobile integration that allows you as an audience member to submit questions without having to raise your hand. Microsoft is making a bold move to promote its cloud first, mobile first approach: A SharePoint app is coming soon to iOS devices. And finally, Box launched a product dedicated for government customers.

Google Keyboard for Android Now Has a One-Handed Mode – Google Keyboard for Android has received a significant update today, including a one-handed mode, some design tweaks, and the ability to resize the keyboard’s height to your own preference.

Looking for a Summary of All Google Apps Updates From April 2016? – Google Apps Updates has just released their April 2016 newsletter that lists out all of the new and exciting features in Google Apps. In the newsletter, you can also view the Google Apps Release Calendar to see what’s coming soon in May.

Google Contacts is Now Available for Preview from the Admin Console – Once Google Contacts is enabled, admins can provide users access to the new Google Contacts, which includes the ability to import contacts from a long list of options.

SharePoint App for iPhone Coming Soon – SharePoint is Microsoft’s collaboration app and a very important piece to the Office 365 suite. According to Business Insider, Sharepoint generates more than $3 billion for Microsoft. In the office, SharePoint serves as a company’s intranet and it’s designed to serve the same purpose on a mobile device. Considering the SharePoint app, Microsoft is living up to the cloud first, mobile first approach.

Microsoft Made a Smartphone That Reacts Before You Even Touch It – The ultimate smart device does exactly what you want before you to tell it to. It sounds like an impossible expectation, but Microsoft brings us one step closer to that fantasy with a prototype smartphone that can detect and react to hover gestures before you even tap the screen.

You Can Now Ask Questions About a Google Slides Presentation Without Having to Raise Your Hand – Google Slides has announced a new Q&A feature that allows audience members to ask questions about a presentation with the use of their computers, Android devices, or iOS devices. When a presenter or slide deck owner has shared the file with you, you can submit questions and vote on questions already asked. The presenter is notified of the questions and receives the questions in a ranked order of what the audience wants to hear about most.

Amidst a New FedRAMP Certification Win, Box Launches Box for Government – Box is setting its goals high as it goes after government customers. Box recently received provisional authority to operate as FedRAMP certified and also released a new product called Box for Government. The two moves complement each other very nicely from the perspective of a federal agency.

Office Blog Summarizes All Features and Updates from April in Latest Roundup – In the April 2016 roundup blog post, the Office 365 team summarizes the updates from April and includes their praise for user feedback. They detail all of the accomplishments in the Office 365 admin center, such as the new dashboard customization features, end user customization, access to additional usage reports, among many others.

Office 365 Announces Collaboration Between OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online – In this latest Microsoft Mechanics video, Office 365 details the new collaboration features available for OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online. The blog post analyzes the journey of a file and explains the Office 365 thought process in building specific features. The article also gives a preview of other upcoming features, such as SharePoint document library improvements.

Google Keyboard for Android Includes New Feature that Allows You To Remove Autocheck Suggestions – Last week, Google announced announced a one-handed mode on the Google Keyboard for Android, however there is another feature that’s been recently discovered. As reported by The Verge, you can now remove autocheck  suggestions that you don’t want to use. For instance if the word “three” is often the auto-correct for when you are trying to type out “there,” you can remove “three” from the suggestions and notion to Google that this isn’t the word you’re going for.