Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
Google Docs already lets you use Gemini to get help with writing when accessing the service through your web browser.
We’ve just spotted early evidence of “Help me write” coming to the Docs Android app.
Right now we don’t have much more than the appearance of that name, with the tool not yet functional.
Google’s been spending the better part of the past couple years squeezing AI tools into just about every nook and cranny of its apps and services — for better or for worse. Some of those additions feel like absolute upgrades, while others (like Search AI Mode) are more of an acquired taste. The nice thing for many, though, is that Google’s not forcing us to use them, and that’s especially true for its generative AI tools, like Gmail’s “Help me write.” If you do find those useful, you may soon have a new option to try out, as a Workspace web feature gets ready to go mobile.
Two years ago, we didn’t even have Gemini yet, but back in those Bard days Google also introduced its Duet AI for Cloud, and that’s where we first met its “Help me write” tools for Docs and Gmail. While that’s now part of Gemini, there’s been a big limitation hanging over the feature this whole time: While it works just fine in Docs on the web, you haven’t been able to similarly take advantage of it through the Docs app on Android.
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Today we’re looking at Google’s new version 1.25.401.00.90 release of Docs for Android. While you won’t find this AI writing tool available in the app just yet, we’ve been able to get this build of the software to start showing us a “Help me write” button on the toolbar.
Unfortunately, that’s as far as we can get at the moment, and even with that little teaser cluing us in to work on this tool likely being under development, right now just none of it is functional at all — hitting that “submit” button doesn’t do anything with our text.
That said, it seems pretty obvious where this should eventually go, presumably mirroring the functionality of the web-based version of Docs. Of course, there may be quite a lot of work to get done before we’re ready to see a functional version in action, so it’s hard to say with any kind of certainty when this might be ready to actually give it a try. We’ll be keeping an eye on future Android releases and let you know if we’re able to spot any further progress.
⚠️ An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
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