Google has announced that is adding native support for electronic signatures, or eSignatures, to Docs and Drive. From Mountain View they have decided to take this step to make it easier for the users of their tools to request signatures, as well as the signing of documents, without having to leave their cloud-based productivity tools.
For now, as usual with its products and services, Google has launched this function for requesting and carrying out electronic signatures in the testing phase. However, it is a fairly solid option, since it has been in the preliminary evaluation phase (alpha testing phase) for more than a year.
According to the screenshots that Google has published in the post in which it announces this novelty, users will be able to request a full signature, or the initials, of the recipients of the requests. There is also a box for the signature date, which is set to auto-populate.
In addition, multiple signature requests can be generated from the same contract template, and according to Google, the feature will include the ability to track the status of pending signatures. For now, though, it appears that only Gmail account users will be able to request signatures, but the ability to request an electronic signature from non-Gmail users will arrive before the end of this year.
This function will not be available at first for all users of the Google office suite either. Individual Google Workspace subscribers will receive access to an open beta of the feature over the next two weeks.
The Google Business or Enterprise plan subscribers only will gain access to it if those in charge of the administration of your company’s plans specifically request access to the function, what they can do by filling out this form. At this time it is not known when users of free personal Google accounts will be able to access this function.
