{"slug": "google-docs", "name": "Google Docs", "category": "editors", "category_name": "Editors and IDEs", "description": "Google's free web-based word processor with real-time collaborative editing.", "recommenders": 9, "commenters": 21, "warners": 4, "score": 6.57, "rising": 1.04, "first": "2025-11-09", "latest": "2026-10-01", "why": "HN commenters use it as a free, long-standing replacement for Microsoft Office, valued for team collaboration, revision history and catching errors in drafts.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 9, "neutral": 6, "compare": 2, "warn": 4}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1], "listed": true, "loved": ["Reliable mainstay", "Office replacement"], "caveat": "Data security", "short_quote": "Between Libreoffice and Google Docs, I haven't touched MS365 products in almost a decade now.", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://docs.google.com", "pricing": "freemium", "aliases": ["Google Docs"], "verdict": [{"text": "HN commenters use it as a free, long-standing replacement for Microsoft Office,", "cites": [{"id": 795446737, "item_id": 49715421, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49715421", "by": "bigyabai", "date": "2026-09-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Between Libreoffice and Google Docs, I haven't touched MS365 products in almost a decade now.", "excerpt": "Microsoft Office and Adobe products had FOSS alternatives before AI ever existed. Between Libreoffice and Google Docs, I haven't touched MS365 products in almost a decade now. The problem is usually a licensing/compliance/support one. Everyone hates Photoshop and Lightroom, but it's what all of the professional plugins support. Nobody likes paying for Microsoft Word, but it supports Active Directory and the weird doc", "context": "", "use_case": "office documents", "switched_from": "Microsoft 365", "story": "Ask HN: Where is all of the AI coded software?"}, {"id": 773471760, "item_id": 48341985, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48341985", "by": "systemBuilder", "date": "2026-05-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Have been 100% on google docs since 2015.", "excerpt": "Only morons use microsoft office products willingly. Haven't bought a copy of office, ever. I used to buy corporate laptops for $200 with $250 copies of office on them. Have been 100% on google docs since 2015.", "context": "", "use_case": "documents", "switched_from": "Microsoft Office", "story": "Microsoft degrades functionality of perpetually-licensed offline products"}, {"id": 781603152, "item_id": 48850197, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48850197", "by": "kaikai", "date": "2026-07-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It\u2019s free, took me very little time to set up", "excerpt": "I have a Google doc shared with close friends and family that I keep updated with info in case I\u2019m seriously injured or dead. It doesn\u2019t have passwords or anything harmful to leak, just things like what banks I use, contact info for various friend communities and my job, and an (unofficial) medical directive. It\u2019s free, took me very little time to set up, and in case of an accident should give people enough leads to ", "context": "", "use_case": "shared emergency info doc", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: LastShelf \u2013 an emergency map of your family's documents bills& contacts"}, {"id": 775785523, "item_id": 48486595, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48486595", "by": "majormajor", "date": "2026-06-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Gmail, Search, Docs/Drive, Maps, Street View, Chrome, all solid but old consumer apps.", "excerpt": "Most of their best products are VERY old. Gmail, Search, Docs/Drive, Maps, Street View, Chrome, all solid but old consumer apps. A lot of early entrants/market defining products, too! Most of them are still very good. Calendar is... fine. Gmail/Calendar as corporate products in some ways feel like downgrades compared to the functionality of the older Office desktop suite, but they integrate nicely into a lot of thing", "context": "", "use_case": "documents", "switched_from": "", "story": "Claude Desktop spins up a VM without no way of stopping it"}]}, {"text": " valued for team collaboration, revision history and catching errors in drafts.", "cites": [{"id": 764498836, "item_id": 47781177, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47781177", "by": "mark-weiss", "date": "2026-04-15", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Notion and Google Docs work better for teams, but agents have to go through APIs", "excerpt": "Moxn is a collaborative editor with git-like version control for documents and a filesystem interface for agents. Even before AI, I wanted docs to behave more like repos for two reasons: - With multiple users live-editing in the same doc, the content I was working on would bounce around in the UI. - I'm naturally iterative and I don\u2019t one-shot prose well. Collaborating with AI added two more pain points: - Multiple a", "context": "", "use_case": "team docs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Moxn \u2013 Git-like version control for collaborative docs"}, {"id": 749584704, "item_id": 46849044, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46849044", "by": "marysminefnuf", "date": "2026-02-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I check revision history in google docs to ensure they didn't use ai by copying and pasting from a prompt.", "excerpt": "I give my 3rd graders an individual topic to write about based on what they like. Every 250 words is a new chapter. I check revision history in google docs to ensure they didn't use ai by copying and pasting from a prompt. We cant tell what is ai written anymore like we used to and ai detection tools are scams. We can still tell copy and paste though and if its pasted its always going to be from ai.", "context": "3rd grade teacher", "use_case": "checking student writing history", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: How do you approach writing in the age of AI?"}, {"id": 798789616, "item_id": 49924351, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49924351", "by": "gus_massa", "date": "2026-10-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "For long post, I use Google Docs to write the draft because it detects most errors.", "excerpt": "> even on my native language Hi from Argentina! For HN comments, I just write them and they may have a few typos. For long post, I use Google Docs to write the draft because it detects most errors. > LinkedIn deleted my account :( I tried withe the WaybackMachine, but It's not cached there. > The posts weren't high-quality, but they did earn me over 2,300 followers there. It's hard to know what other people will find", "context": "", "use_case": "drafting long posts", "switched_from": "", "story": "How Apply for Position?"}]}, {"text": " No single complaint dominates; caveats include company data-security policies, poor screen-reader support on macOS,", "cites": [{"id": 753540769, "item_id": 47096298, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47096298", "by": "al_borland", "date": "2026-02-20", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it can mean sensitive information goes to an untrusted server not bound by company security policies", "excerpt": "Using Microsoft or Google products for an office suite is generally a company decision. Where I work, we use Excel, and the rest of the MS Office suite. Any time we have interns I have to drill this into their head, as they continuously try and use Google Docs. This is a problem, because it can mean sensitive information goes to an untrusted server not bound by company security policies. It would also mean employees ", "context": "works at a company standardized on MS Office", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "CFO says \"Everyone uses Excel, definitely not Sheets. Get over it\". True?"}, {"id": 787003297, "item_id": 49187706, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49187706", "by": "devinprater", "date": "2026-08-05", "stance": "warn", "quote": "If Apple can stand having awful Google Docs support, which I use at work, on MacOS", "excerpt": "Totally blind person. I once had this bright idea that the blind community could fix Linux into our perfect platform. I don't care all that much anymore about anything being fixed, foss or not. FOSS is everyone scratching their own itch, and if a developer who can see creates a program that scratches his itch but isn't accessible, but his itch is scratched, why would he then spend time fixing it up for the one blind ", "context": "Totally blind person", "use_case": "work documents with screen reader", "switched_from": "", "story": "The \"Disability Dongle\": Why Silicon Valley Hates Me and You"}]}, {"text": " and the lack of an offline desktop app.", "cites": [{"id": 790142049, "item_id": 49383878, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49383878", "by": "doodlesdev", "date": "2026-08-20", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Both are great _products_ and I use them", "excerpt": "There's friction to doing it this way right now, though. You lose out quickly on accessibility, SEO, performance and developer experience (you need developers that are more experienced). Unfortunately, thinking about it in terms of game theory [0], I believe this is a good thing: I don't want most websites migrating to canvas-like APIs for rendering. My web browser is my agent and I'd like it to mostly render DOM-ren", "context": "", "use_case": "documents", "switched_from": "", "story": "HTML Can Do That"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Reliable mainstay", "summary": "Described as a solid, long-running product that commenters like and keep using.", "quotes": [{"id": 775785523, "item_id": 48486595, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48486595", "by": "majormajor", "date": "2026-06-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Gmail, Search, Docs/Drive, Maps, Street View, Chrome, all solid but old consumer apps.", "excerpt": "Most of their best products are VERY old. Gmail, Search, Docs/Drive, Maps, Street View, Chrome, all solid but old consumer apps. A lot of early entrants/market defining products, too! Most of them are still very good. Calendar is... fine. Gmail/Calendar as corporate products in some ways feel like downgrades compared to the functionality of the older Office desktop suite, but they integrate nicely into a lot of thing", "context": "", "use_case": "documents", "switched_from": "", "story": "Claude Desktop spins up a VM without no way of stopping it"}, {"id": 790142049, "item_id": 49383878, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49383878", "by": "doodlesdev", "date": "2026-08-20", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Both are great _products_ and I use them", "excerpt": "There's friction to doing it this way right now, though. You lose out quickly on accessibility, SEO, performance and developer experience (you need developers that are more experienced). Unfortunately, thinking about it in terms of game theory [0], I believe this is a good thing: I don't want most websites migrating to canvas-like APIs for rendering. My web browser is my agent and I'd like it to mostly render DOM-ren", "context": "", "use_case": "documents", "switched_from": "", "story": "HTML Can Do That"}, {"id": 754830179, "item_id": 47176886, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47176886", "by": "ishandeveloper", "date": "2026-02-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the same reason I love Figma and Google Docs", "excerpt": "- On Remotion, yeah, not sure it's the right fit, but honestly the sheer capability of models at writing code these days has surprised me. Funnily enough, this is how I used to make small graphics for videos 2-3 years back when I knew nothing about After Effects. We've been eager to experiment with this for a while, just have to prioritize other user requests for now. Will definitely try a few approaches and see what", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Launch HN: Cardboard (YC W26) \u2013 Agentic video editor"}]}, {"label": "Office replacement", "summary": "Some commenters have used it instead of Microsoft Office for years.", "quotes": [{"id": 795446737, "item_id": 49715421, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49715421", "by": "bigyabai", "date": "2026-09-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Between Libreoffice and Google Docs, I haven't touched MS365 products in almost a decade now.", "excerpt": "Microsoft Office and Adobe products had FOSS alternatives before AI ever existed. Between Libreoffice and Google Docs, I haven't touched MS365 products in almost a decade now. The problem is usually a licensing/compliance/support one. Everyone hates Photoshop and Lightroom, but it's what all of the professional plugins support. Nobody likes paying for Microsoft Word, but it supports Active Directory and the weird doc", "context": "", "use_case": "office documents", "switched_from": "Microsoft 365", "story": "Ask HN: Where is all of the AI coded software?"}, {"id": 773471760, "item_id": 48341985, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48341985", "by": "systemBuilder", "date": "2026-05-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Have been 100% on google docs since 2015.", "excerpt": "Only morons use microsoft office products willingly. Haven't bought a copy of office, ever. I used to buy corporate laptops for $200 with $250 copies of office on them. Have been 100% on google docs since 2015.", "context": "", "use_case": "documents", "switched_from": "Microsoft Office", "story": "Microsoft degrades functionality of perpetually-licensed offline products"}]}, {"label": "Collaboration", "summary": "Seen as working well for teams, with revision history useful for checking how text was written.", "quotes": [{"id": 764498836, "item_id": 47781177, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47781177", "by": "mark-weiss", "date": "2026-04-15", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Notion and Google Docs work better for teams, but agents have to go through APIs", "excerpt": "Moxn is a collaborative editor with git-like version control for documents and a filesystem interface for agents. Even before AI, I wanted docs to behave more like repos for two reasons: - With multiple users live-editing in the same doc, the content I was working on would bounce around in the UI. - I'm naturally iterative and I don\u2019t one-shot prose well. Collaborating with AI added two more pain points: - Multiple a", "context": "", "use_case": "team docs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Moxn \u2013 Git-like version control for collaborative docs"}, {"id": 749584704, "item_id": 46849044, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46849044", "by": "marysminefnuf", "date": "2026-02-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I check revision history in google docs to ensure they didn't use ai by copying and pasting from a prompt.", "excerpt": "I give my 3rd graders an individual topic to write about based on what they like. Every 250 words is a new chapter. I check revision history in google docs to ensure they didn't use ai by copying and pasting from a prompt. We cant tell what is ai written anymore like we used to and ai detection tools are scams. We can still tell copy and paste though and if its pasted its always going to be from ai.", "context": "3rd grade teacher", "use_case": "checking student writing history", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: How do you approach writing in the age of AI?"}]}, {"label": "Error checking", "summary": "Used to draft long posts because it catches most writing errors.", "quotes": [{"id": 798789616, "item_id": 49924351, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49924351", "by": "gus_massa", "date": "2026-10-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "For long post, I use Google Docs to write the draft because it detects most errors.", "excerpt": "> even on my native language Hi from Argentina! For HN comments, I just write them and they may have a few typos. For long post, I use Google Docs to write the draft because it detects most errors. > LinkedIn deleted my account :( I tried withe the WaybackMachine, but It's not cached there. > The posts weren't high-quality, but they did earn me over 2,300 followers there. It's hard to know what other people will find", "context": "", "use_case": "drafting long posts", "switched_from": "", "story": "How Apply for Position?"}]}, {"label": "Free, easy setup", "summary": "Free and quick to set up as a shared document with friends and family.", "quotes": [{"id": 781603152, "item_id": 48850197, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48850197", "by": "kaikai", "date": "2026-07-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It\u2019s free, took me very little time to set up", "excerpt": "I have a Google doc shared with close friends and family that I keep updated with info in case I\u2019m seriously injured or dead. It doesn\u2019t have passwords or anything harmful to leak, just things like what banks I use, contact info for various friend communities and my job, and an (unofficial) medical directive. It\u2019s free, took me very little time to set up, and in case of an accident should give people enough leads to ", "context": "", "use_case": "shared emergency info doc", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: LastShelf \u2013 an emergency map of your family's documents bills& contacts"}]}, {"label": "Mixed-direction text", "summary": "Handles mixing left-to-right and right-to-left languages in one document well.", "quotes": [{"id": 777424402, "item_id": 48589025, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48589025", "by": "cik", "date": "2026-06-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Google Docs has done this perfectly since the beginning.", "excerpt": "This year, for the first time since 2006 I've have Outlook and friends in my life. I run Linux, so naturally I turned to firefox.. Not a win. Fair, I use Chrome only for these products. Dear Lord, how has the software gotten this much worse in 19 years? I thought that Thunderbird was bloated and awful... until I tried Outlook, in a browser, on Linux. Now, the Thunderbird experience is shockingly pleasurable, compared", "context": "", "use_case": "mixed LTR/RTL documents", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft new Outlook takes 10 seconds to do what Outlook Classic does instantly"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Data security", "summary": "Using it at a company on another suite can send sensitive data outside company security policies.", "quotes": [{"id": 753540769, "item_id": 47096298, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47096298", "by": "al_borland", "date": "2026-02-20", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it can mean sensitive information goes to an untrusted server not bound by company security policies", "excerpt": "Using Microsoft or Google products for an office suite is generally a company decision. Where I work, we use Excel, and the rest of the MS Office suite. Any time we have interns I have to drill this into their head, as they continuously try and use Google Docs. This is a problem, because it can mean sensitive information goes to an untrusted server not bound by company security policies. It would also mean employees ", "context": "works at a company standardized on MS Office", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "CFO says \"Everyone uses Excel, definitely not Sheets. Get over it\". True?"}]}, {"label": "Accessibility", "summary": "A blind user calls its support on macOS awful.", "quotes": [{"id": 787003297, "item_id": 49187706, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49187706", "by": "devinprater", "date": "2026-08-05", "stance": "warn", "quote": "If Apple can stand having awful Google Docs support, which I use at work, on MacOS", "excerpt": "Totally blind person. I once had this bright idea that the blind community could fix Linux into our perfect platform. I don't care all that much anymore about anything being fixed, foss or not. FOSS is everyone scratching their own itch, and if a developer who can see creates a program that scratches his itch but isn't accessible, but his itch is scratched, why would he then spend time fixing it up for the one blind ", "context": "Totally blind person", "use_case": "work documents with screen reader", "switched_from": "", "story": "The \"Disability Dongle\": Why Silicon Valley Hates Me and You"}]}, {"label": "Title-box bug", "summary": "Typing into the title right after opening a new doc can get overwritten.", "quotes": [{"id": 791966224, "item_id": 49497889, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49497889", "by": "bariumbitmap", "date": "2026-08-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Google Docs added some kind of delay such that the typing you do into the title box right after you open the doc gets overwritten", "excerpt": "One of the things I love about reading a bug report for a bug I've experienced is the feeling of solidarity it gives, a sort of \"wow, me too, I thought I was the only one\". I immediately recognized this issue, for example: > when opening a new Google Doc, I used to immediately put the title I wanted into the doc. At some point, maybe ten years ago or so, Google Docs added some kind of delay such that the typing you d", "context": "", "use_case": "documents", "switched_from": "", "story": "Bug Blindness"}]}, {"label": "No offline app", "summary": "One commenter wishes it were an offline-usable desktop application.", "quotes": [{"id": 790142049, "item_id": 49383878, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49383878", "by": "doodlesdev", "date": "2026-08-20", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Both are great _products_ and I use them", "excerpt": "There's friction to doing it this way right now, though. You lose out quickly on accessibility, SEO, performance and developer experience (you need developers that are more experienced). Unfortunately, thinking about it in terms of game theory [0], I believe this is a good thing: I don't want most websites migrating to canvas-like APIs for rendering. My web browser is my agent and I'd like it to mostly render DOM-ren", "context": "", "use_case": "documents", "switched_from": "", "story": "HTML Can Do That"}]}, {"label": "Not best-in-class", "summary": "Some see it as an unremarkable default that others do better.", "quotes": [{"id": 789274386, "item_id": 49329649, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49329649", "by": "mrngld", "date": "2026-08-17", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Teams, SharePoint, Google Docs, someone somewhere is doing those things much better.", "excerpt": "There's competition, but no one is interested. TBH, I blame IT leadership. The easy choice is Google or Microsoft. \"No one ever got fired for buying IBM\" is now \"No one ever got fired for subbing to Office.\" Someone needs to bite the bullet and stitch together an alternative array of services. They've cultivated their own monoculture by hitting the easy-button and forking over for Office365, etc. Which if we're being", "context": "", "use_case": "documents", "switched_from": "", "story": "Self hosted email continues to steeply decline"}, {"id": 788671955, "item_id": 49291997, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49291997", "by": "twotwigs", "date": "2026-08-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Sometimes we use Google (yawn) Docs -_-", "excerpt": "We use Jira for PM -_- Excel for spreadsheets -_- And Slack for communications -_- Sometimes we use Google (yawn) Docs -_- \u201cI use Linux\u201d O_O", "context": "", "use_case": "documents", "switched_from": "", "story": "Choose Boring Technology (2015)"}]}, {"label": "Agent access", "summary": "AI agents must go through APIs rather than working with files directly.", "quotes": [{"id": 764498836, "item_id": 47781177, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47781177", "by": "mark-weiss", "date": "2026-04-15", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Notion and Google Docs work better for teams, but agents have to go through APIs", "excerpt": "Moxn is a collaborative editor with git-like version control for documents and a filesystem interface for agents. Even before AI, I wanted docs to behave more like repos for two reasons: - With multiple users live-editing in the same doc, the content I was working on would bounce around in the UI. - I'm naturally iterative and I don\u2019t one-shot prose well. Collaborating with AI added two more pain points: - Multiple a", "context": "", "use_case": "team docs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Moxn \u2013 Git-like version control for collaborative docs"}]}], "who": [{"by": "HMETechnologies", "context": "hiring at a media company", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48059654", "date": "2026-05-08"}, {"by": "marysminefnuf", "context": "3rd grade teacher", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46849044", "date": "2026-02-01"}], "tags": ["for teams", "web-based", "for drafting long posts", "for classrooms", "for shared family docs"], "use_cases": ["documents", "office documents", "drafting long posts", "work documents with screen reader", "journaling", "shared emergency info doc"], "compared": [{"slug": "notion", "name": "Notion", "co": 5, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "libreoffice", "name": "LibreOffice", "co": 5, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "microsoft-office", "name": "Microsoft Office", "co": 2, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "figma", "name": "Figma", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "wordcraft", "name": "wordcraft", "co": 1, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "slack", "name": "Slack", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "kraa", "name": "Kraa", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49884074", "title": "How Apply for Position?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49715361", "title": "Ask HN: Where is all of the AI coded software?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49594251", "title": "Switzerland's Federal Government Is Replacing Microsoft on 3k Computers", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49494520", "title": "Bug Blindness", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49433292", "title": "Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49362689", "title": "HTML Can Do That", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"compare": 1}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 2, "warn": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"compare": 1}, "2026-05": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-08": {"warn": 3, "neutral": 2, "recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 798789616, "item_id": 49924351, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49924351", "by": "gus_massa", "date": "2026-10-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "For long post, I use Google Docs to write the draft because it detects most errors.", "excerpt": "> even on my native language Hi from Argentina! For HN comments, I just write them and they may have a few typos. For long post, I use Google Docs to write the draft because it detects most errors. > LinkedIn deleted my account :( I tried withe the WaybackMachine, but It's not cached there. > The posts weren't high-quality, but they did earn me over 2,300 followers there. It's hard to know what other people will find", "context": "", "use_case": "drafting long posts", "switched_from": "", "story": "How Apply for Position?"}, {"id": 795446737, "item_id": 49715421, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49715421", "by": "bigyabai", "date": "2026-09-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Between Libreoffice and Google Docs, I haven't touched MS365 products in almost a decade now.", "excerpt": "Microsoft Office and Adobe products had FOSS alternatives before AI ever existed. Between Libreoffice and Google Docs, I haven't touched MS365 products in almost a decade now. The problem is usually a licensing/compliance/support one. Everyone hates Photoshop and Lightroom, but it's what all of the professional plugins support. Nobody likes paying for Microsoft Word, but it supports Active Directory and the weird doc", "context": "", "use_case": "office documents", "switched_from": "Microsoft 365", "story": "Ask HN: Where is all of the AI coded software?"}, {"id": 793518946, "item_id": 49594934, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49594934", "by": "mikaTheThird", "date": "2026-09-07", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "many apps I use nowadays are on the web, Figma, Canva, google docs, outlook", "excerpt": "Not sure about goverment requirements, but many apps I use nowadays are on the web, Figma, Canva, google docs, outlook and so on. There is not much need for a dedicated OS for most users.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Switzerland's Federal Government Is Replacing Microsoft on 3k Computers"}, {"id": 791966224, "item_id": 49497889, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49497889", "by": "bariumbitmap", "date": "2026-08-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Google Docs added some kind of delay such that the typing you do into the title box right after you open the doc gets overwritten", "excerpt": "One of the things I love about reading a bug report for a bug I've experienced is the feeling of solidarity it gives, a sort of \"wow, me too, I thought I was the only one\". I immediately recognized this issue, for example: > when opening a new Google Doc, I used to immediately put the title I wanted into the doc. At some point, maybe ten years ago or so, Google Docs added some kind of delay such that the typing you d", "context": "", "use_case": "documents", "switched_from": "", "story": "Bug Blindness"}, {"id": 791126435, "item_id": 49445402, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49445402", "by": "unsnap_biceps", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "all my office ware is native (mail.app) or web based (Google Docs)", "excerpt": "I live with safari and finder and all my office ware is native (mail.app) or web based (Google Docs). Chat is via slack, but I use the website and not the native app. I've adapted to the quirks and I'd bet that's a lot of the reason why it doesn't feel slow to me. I feel I have plenty of windows open at once but likely less than you do. Different folks different strokes as they say.", "context": "", "use_case": "office documents", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra"}, {"id": 790142049, "item_id": 49383878, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49383878", "by": "doodlesdev", "date": "2026-08-20", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Both are great _products_ and I use them", "excerpt": "There's friction to doing it this way right now, though. You lose out quickly on accessibility, SEO, performance and developer experience (you need developers that are more experienced). Unfortunately, thinking about it in terms of game theory [0], I believe this is a good thing: I don't want most websites migrating to canvas-like APIs for rendering. My web browser is my agent and I'd like it to mostly render DOM-ren", "context": "", "use_case": "documents", "switched_from": "", "story": "HTML Can Do That"}, {"id": 789274386, "item_id": 49329649, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49329649", "by": "mrngld", "date": "2026-08-17", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Teams, SharePoint, Google Docs, someone somewhere is doing those things much better.", "excerpt": "There's competition, but no one is interested. TBH, I blame IT leadership. The easy choice is Google or Microsoft. \"No one ever got fired for buying IBM\" is now \"No one ever got fired for subbing to Office.\" Someone needs to bite the bullet and stitch together an alternative array of services. They've cultivated their own monoculture by hitting the easy-button and forking over for Office365, etc. Which if we're being", "context": "", "use_case": "documents", "switched_from": "", "story": "Self hosted email continues to steeply decline"}, {"id": 788671955, "item_id": 49291997, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49291997", "by": "twotwigs", "date": "2026-08-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Sometimes we use Google (yawn) Docs -_-", "excerpt": "We use Jira for PM -_- Excel for spreadsheets -_- And Slack for communications -_- Sometimes we use Google (yawn) Docs -_- \u201cI use Linux\u201d O_O", "context": "", "use_case": "documents", "switched_from": "", "story": "Choose Boring Technology (2015)"}, {"id": 787003297, "item_id": 49187706, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49187706", "by": "devinprater", "date": "2026-08-05", "stance": "warn", "quote": "If Apple can stand having awful Google Docs support, which I use at work, on MacOS", "excerpt": "Totally blind person. I once had this bright idea that the blind community could fix Linux into our perfect platform. I don't care all that much anymore about anything being fixed, foss or not. FOSS is everyone scratching their own itch, and if a developer who can see creates a program that scratches his itch but isn't accessible, but his itch is scratched, why would he then spend time fixing it up for the one blind ", "context": "Totally blind person", "use_case": "work documents with screen reader", "switched_from": "", "story": "The \"Disability Dongle\": Why Silicon Valley Hates Me and You"}, {"id": 784422800, "item_id": 49026425, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49026425", "by": "stillpointlab", "date": "2026-07-23", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I'll also journal in Google Docs, Apple notes, or text docs in VS Code.", "excerpt": "I was cleaning my office a couple of days ago and found stacks upon stacks of paper. I've had a habit for over a decade of taking printer paper, folding it half length-wise, and scribbling notes on it as I work. I use it like a temporary scratch pad. It is an ingrained habit at this point, as soon as I have difficult focused work to do I reach for the paper and pen. Urgent site-wide outage? Start scribbling. Big feat", "context": "", "use_case": "journaling", "switched_from": "", "story": "Writing by Hand is Good for your Brain"}, {"id": 781603152, "item_id": 48850197, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48850197", "by": "kaikai", "date": "2026-07-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It\u2019s free, took me very little time to set up", "excerpt": "I have a Google doc shared with close friends and family that I keep updated with info in case I\u2019m seriously injured or dead. It doesn\u2019t have passwords or anything harmful to leak, just things like what banks I use, contact info for various friend communities and my job, and an (unofficial) medical directive. It\u2019s free, took me very little time to set up, and in case of an accident should give people enough leads to ", "context": "", "use_case": "shared emergency info doc", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: LastShelf \u2013 an emergency map of your family's documents bills& contacts"}, {"id": 777424402, "item_id": 48589025, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48589025", "by": "cik", "date": "2026-06-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Google Docs has done this perfectly since the beginning.", "excerpt": "This year, for the first time since 2006 I've have Outlook and friends in my life. I run Linux, so naturally I turned to firefox.. Not a win. Fair, I use Chrome only for these products. Dear Lord, how has the software gotten this much worse in 19 years? I thought that Thunderbird was bloated and awful... until I tried Outlook, in a browser, on Linux. Now, the Thunderbird experience is shockingly pleasurable, compared", "context": "", "use_case": "mixed LTR/RTL documents", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft new Outlook takes 10 seconds to do what Outlook Classic does instantly"}, {"id": 775785523, "item_id": 48486595, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48486595", "by": "majormajor", "date": "2026-06-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Gmail, Search, Docs/Drive, Maps, Street View, Chrome, all solid but old consumer apps.", "excerpt": "Most of their best products are VERY old. Gmail, Search, Docs/Drive, Maps, Street View, Chrome, all solid but old consumer apps. A lot of early entrants/market defining products, too! Most of them are still very good. Calendar is... fine. Gmail/Calendar as corporate products in some ways feel like downgrades compared to the functionality of the older Office desktop suite, but they integrate nicely into a lot of thing", "context": "", "use_case": "documents", "switched_from": "", "story": "Claude Desktop spins up a VM without no way of stopping it"}, {"id": 773471760, "item_id": 48341985, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48341985", "by": "systemBuilder", "date": "2026-05-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Have been 100% on google docs since 2015.", "excerpt": "Only morons use microsoft office products willingly. Haven't bought a copy of office, ever. I used to buy corporate laptops for $200 with $250 copies of office on them. Have been 100% on google docs since 2015.", "context": "", "use_case": "documents", "switched_from": "Microsoft Office", "story": "Microsoft degrades functionality of perpetually-licensed offline products"}, {"id": 768954471, "item_id": 48059654, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48059654", "by": "HMETechnologies", "date": "2026-05-08", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "We use Slack, Notion, and Google Docs.", "excerpt": "HME Technologies | AI Operations Lead | REMOTE | Full-Time | $40k-$75k base + Bonus HME Technologies (https://hmetech.com/) is a small, profitable media and affiliate marketing company. We build audiences, sell sponsorships, and run a growing portfolio of content properties across YouTube and emerging platforms. We're operator-run, AI-native, and looking for our first AI Operations Lead to work directly with the co-f", "context": "hiring at a media company", "use_case": "documents", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Who is hiring? (May 2026)"}, {"id": 764498836, "item_id": 47781177, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47781177", "by": "mark-weiss", "date": "2026-04-15", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Notion and Google Docs work better for teams, but agents have to go through APIs", "excerpt": "Moxn is a collaborative editor with git-like version control for documents and a filesystem interface for agents. Even before AI, I wanted docs to behave more like repos for two reasons: - With multiple users live-editing in the same doc, the content I was working on would bounce around in the UI. - I'm naturally iterative and I don\u2019t one-shot prose well. Collaborating with AI added two more pain points: - Multiple a", "context": "", "use_case": "team docs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Moxn \u2013 Git-like version control for collaborative docs"}, {"id": 754830179, "item_id": 47176886, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47176886", "by": "ishandeveloper", "date": "2026-02-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the same reason I love Figma and Google Docs", "excerpt": "- On Remotion, yeah, not sure it's the right fit, but honestly the sheer capability of models at writing code these days has surprised me. Funnily enough, this is how I used to make small graphics for videos 2-3 years back when I knew nothing about After Effects. We've been eager to experiment with this for a while, just have to prioritize other user requests for now. Will definitely try a few approaches and see what", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Launch HN: Cardboard (YC W26) \u2013 Agentic video editor"}, {"id": 753540769, "item_id": 47096298, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47096298", "by": "al_borland", "date": "2026-02-20", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it can mean sensitive information goes to an untrusted server not bound by company security policies", "excerpt": "Using Microsoft or Google products for an office suite is generally a company decision. Where I work, we use Excel, and the rest of the MS Office suite. Any time we have interns I have to drill this into their head, as they continuously try and use Google Docs. This is a problem, because it can mean sensitive information goes to an untrusted server not bound by company security policies. It would also mean employees ", "context": "works at a company standardized on MS Office", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "CFO says \"Everyone uses Excel, definitely not Sheets. Get over it\". True?"}, {"id": 752685489, "item_id": 47042843, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47042843", "by": "Maro", "date": "2026-02-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "one of the few exceptions is Google Docs, I can directly work into that", "excerpt": "Some thoughts, feedbacks, well-meaning critcism: - on non-supported browsers (eg. mobile) don't render the app, show a message instead - Shift + Home/End for selecting text doesn't work - Ctrl + N for a new page doesn't work - things like the above ^, while it may be trivial, will turn off people who will not spend more than 10-20s to evaluate - you're refer the simplicity of text files, but the editor is not fixed w", "context": "", "use_case": "writing and notes", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Lightwave \u2013 Real-time notes app, 3.5 years of hand-rolled JavaScript"}, {"id": 749584704, "item_id": 46849044, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46849044", "by": "marysminefnuf", "date": "2026-02-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I check revision history in google docs to ensure they didn't use ai by copying and pasting from a prompt.", "excerpt": "I give my 3rd graders an individual topic to write about based on what they like. Every 250 words is a new chapter. I check revision history in google docs to ensure they didn't use ai by copying and pasting from a prompt. We cant tell what is ai written anymore like we used to and ai detection tools are scams. We can still tell copy and paste though and if its pasted its always going to be from ai.", "context": "3rd grade teacher", "use_case": "checking student writing history", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: How do you approach writing in the age of AI?"}, {"id": 733884754, "item_id": 45867797, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45867797", "by": "flakeoil", "date": "2025-11-09", "stance": "compare", "quote": "is Google Docs more compatible with MS Office than Libre Office?", "excerpt": "Good point, but is Google Docs more compatible with MS Office than Libre Office? Can one work fricitonless between a Google Docs user and an MS Word user? There is also OnlyOffice as an alternative to Google Docs. https://www.onlyoffice.com/download-desktop", "context": "", "use_case": "office suite", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: How would you set up a child\u2019s first Linux computer?"}]}