One of my favorite sessions from the New England Google Summit was “Gone Google, Got iPad,” by Dee Lanier. There are many of us that do love both worlds, but getting Google Apps to play nicely with iPad can be challenging. Dee reminded me of many apps that deserve a second look, and introduced a few new features that I love. Below are my highlights from his session.
I have the Google Search app installed on my iOS devices, but I never use it. I didn’t see the point when the omnibox gave me what I needed in Chrome or Safari. I have since learned of some great new features.
You probably know you can search in Chrome using your voice just by clicking on the little microphone icon. What you may not know is that you can now use Google Voice Search hands free! This is a fairly new feature to app on iOS devices, but I think has been working for Android devices a bit longer. Instead of having to click on the microphone, you can enable “Okay Google,” and search hands free. Just by starting your search with, “Okay Google,” the app will pick up your voice and conduct your search. AND it will read the results back to you! This would be great for younger students, struggling readers and writers, the list goes on and on. This is also something you can also enable in your Chrome browser.
Google seems to interpret my East Texas accent better than Siri, and what is read back is a much better quality voice than what Siri has to offer. Try it in the Google Search app or in Chrome. No really, try it now. I’ll wait...Okay, on to the next app!
Below is a video example of how the “Okay Google,” voice command works:
This is another app that is worth a second look. Here are top 3 reasons to switch from the iOS Mail App to the Gmail App:
- Web-based and will not take up space on your iPad
- Search for old emails (I’ve tried this in the mail app many times. It leaves a lot to be desired.)
- Links from Gmail will open in other related Google Apps: Chrome, G+, etc.
If you aren’t using Google+, you should be. It is the fastest growing social network. It also seems that Google is making G+ the hub for all of the other Google Apps. The Google+ App also offers a few additional features you may have not discovered. You can use the G+ app to auto-backup your camera roll. This can save you precious storage space on your iPad. Don’t worry! These are private until you tell G+ otherwise. Dee suggested setting up a dummy account for shared school iPads to collect all your images and files in one lovely, cloud-based location.
- Google Chrome
- Google Translate
- Google Play for iPad (Yes, Google’s music will play on the iPad.)
- Google Hangouts
- YouTube
- YouTube Capture (also mentioned in my TCEA Top Ten List)
- Google Drive
- Quick Office
- Google Keep
- Google Maps
- Google Earth
- Google Play Books
- Blogger
- Snapseed
- Goo.gl (iPhone)
- Google Admin (Account management at your fingertips for your GAFE domain.)
- Chromecast
- The Official List of All the Google Mobile Apps for iOS
Additional Resources
More Google tips and tricks coming next week, but if you are thirsty for more check out these resources:
- GAFE Summit Session Resources (Click on the title of session to find links and resources for each session.)
- I’ve bookmarked all of my resources in Diigo. They can be accessed here.
- I’ve also storified all my tweets for my own reference, and they are loaded with links and resources as well.
- Check out Part 1 in this series: Google Add-ons, and Part 3: Chrome Apps and Extensions.
What are your favorite Google Apps for the iPad? Leave me a comment!