Google pulled the old switcheroo on Microsoft Tuesday with the release of a new Gmail feature that can instantly convert Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint attachments into Google Docs, Sheets and Slides.
A pencil-shaped edit icon will now appear above any Microsoft attachment sent through Gmail. Click it, and the file automatically opens on Google Drive, ready for edits.
“We realize that as a Docs user, you still sometimes have to work with different file types,” read a post from the Google Drive team, “so we often launch updates to make it a little smoother for you.”
The tweak comes as Google and Microsoft are neck-and-neck in a race to add users to their respective cloud-based services. The Wall Street Journal reports that larger businesses with at least 1,000 employees are evenly split between the two services, while smaller businesses tend to skew towards Google Apps. Now businesses of all size can skew a bit more seamlessly.
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