The @ symbol will soon become an important feature in Google Docs. As Workspace continues to grow as a powerful collaboration platform, the company is opening its online text editor to third-party developers. All the user has to do is enter the name of the file or application with the @ symbol and they can view and edit it in Google Docs.

The function is called Smart Chips, it is responsible for integrating other programs into documents. For this, a new API was created that Google talked about at the Cloud Next conference. For example, via the plugin in “Documents” it will be possible to manage Asana projects, preview Miro and Figma dashboards, or see Tableau’s real-time update analytics.

Google has been a bit late in this innovation as products like Notion and Coda have long gained popularity by turning simple text editors into all builders and modular tools that allow you to perform different tasks within a single document. Now the search giant is trying to quickly make up for lost time. Many of the concepts behind this idea will eventually make their way into Spreadsheets and Presentations. “Documentation” is clearly just the beginning.

Google is also providing broader access to Meet, another important work tool. By embedding their own technology into Meet itself, as in Docs, developers will be able to apply key meeting management elements to their apps. For example, users will be able to co-edit a project created directly in Figma during a video meeting. At the same time, it is not necessary to simultaneously run several applications or tabs in the browser. A similar option will also appear in Chat and Spaces. It looks like Google plans to compete on equal terms with Slack and Microsoft Teams in this way.