Google Opens G Suite Collaboration for Non-Account Holders

While Google offers a number of free services, the price users pay is needing to sign up for a Google account. Hundreds of millions are happy with that trade, but some are not. To help more users into services, Google is making some important changes to G Suite. Mountain View has debuted a feature that allows people without a Google account to work on G Suite documents. It is worth noting this does not mean non-account holders can create documents, but they can work on creations when an account holder invites them. Invites will be in the form of a pin code than non-account holders can use to access Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets. Admins of the G Suite documents can manage usage and monitor how the files are edited. In fact, admins are given plenty of control, including the ability to create permissions across a department or domain. At the moment, the feature is only available to testers through the beta program.

Looking for Traction

Google has been increasingly trying to make its productivity applications more potent for enterprise. G Suite applications are excellent for quick document editing on the web but are arguably less appealing to power users, such as business customers. Microsoft's Office 365 service is largely the productivity suite of choice for most organizations. In fact, Office 365 brings in over 1000% more revenue than G Suite does for Google. However, the company has recently doubled the amount of business subscribers to 4 million. Google will hope by opening collaboration the apps will help entice more businesses.