Google has introduced a new feature to make things easier for users. This feature lets you sign documents digitally right within Google Docs and Drive. This is designed to make it simpler to request signatures and sign documents using eSignatures directly on Google’s platform. They’ve been testing this for over a year, and now it’s in the beta stage, which means it’s available for more people to try.
Other software like Dropbox and Adobe Acrobat already let you sign documents electronically. Google is adding this feature to be more competitive, so users don’t have to switch between different apps to get signatures. They’ve shown pictures of how it will work. You can ask people to sign their full name or initials on documents in Docs and Drive. There’s also a space for the date they signed, which can be filled in automatically.
With just one standard contract template, you can ask many people to sign, and Google has made sure you can keep track of who still needs to sign.
For now, it looks like only people who use Gmail can ask for signatures. But Google has said that they will let people who don’t use Gmail do this too, starting later this year. If you’re a Google Workspace subscriber, you’ll get to try this new feature in a testing phase soon. But if you have a different type of subscription, the administrators will have to ask for access.
They haven’t said if or when this feature will be available for free personal Google accounts.