It seems this isn't just MCP but a plugin into the Google ecosystem that allows side-by-side edit conversation with realtime changes similar to Gemini / Google AI Pro.
What I don't understand is, why would Google allow such direct competition to their own AI subscription? Looking forward to a community/open version of this tho it sounds like it needs something hosted to work.
Presumably because it makes the office suite more competitive. Would you rather use Google docs or Microsoft office? I think most people use docs because it's free at a small scale, but plenty of enterprises use it as well. And it's much harder to switch office suites then LLMs so they're better off trying to lock people in on the data side rather than the LLM side.
> why would Google allow such direct competition to their own AI subscription?
Because 2026 Google is the MS org chart meme where each dept has a gun pointed at each other. Anthropic had made their own Docs and Sheets. Now the Workspace division is scared to death they'll lose market share. So they trot out this stuff.
> Looking forward to a community/open version of this tho it sounds like it needs something hosted to work.
And it doesn't work if you are signed into multiple Google accounts :/
Today I wanted to fix some mixed formatting in a Google Doc. Ok, I'll use Gemini, it's right there and surely it's the best. Nope, fails twice "Please try again" then suggests just trash formatting. Ok, fine, I connected this to ChatGPT, let's try that. Nope, multiple rounds of "I can't see that document" despite having the plugin configured. Ok, onto Claude... Nope, can't do it (even with a connector setup) but suggests I use this. Ok, sounds good, I'll install the plugin to Google Docs, login to Claude in the new sidebar, and.... "I can't read the document". I give up.
It seems this isn't just MCP but a plugin into the Google ecosystem that allows side-by-side edit conversation with realtime changes similar to Gemini / Google AI Pro.
What I don't understand is, why would Google allow such direct competition to their own AI subscription? Looking forward to a community/open version of this tho it sounds like it needs something hosted to work.
Presumably because it makes the office suite more competitive. Would you rather use Google docs or Microsoft office? I think most people use docs because it's free at a small scale, but plenty of enterprises use it as well. And it's much harder to switch office suites then LLMs so they're better off trying to lock people in on the data side rather than the LLM side.
Also because Claude has fans everywhere, even at Google and especially at DeepMind.
Alphabet owns a big chunk of Anthropic. They good a big bump in earnings due to the rise of Anthropic valuation.
It’s in their interest to help Anthropic for a win/win.
> What I don't understand is, why would Google allow such direct competition to their own AI subscription?
They are much better off with you using "Google docs" then if Claude or someone else were to launch "Claude docs".
Note: Claude has already launched Claude Docs!
https://support.claude.com/en/articles/16923645-get-started-...
Google doesn‘t really need the money and this way they get more training data and google workspace users
Same reason they sponsor Firefox; it helps keep anti-competition lawsuits at bay?
Or lack of trust in Gemini and fear that people move their workflow to whatever Claude supports and being slowly left out?
Going to guess Claude reversed engineered the api calls from the browser to the server.
> why would Google allow such direct competition to their own AI subscription?
Because 2026 Google is the MS org chart meme where each dept has a gun pointed at each other. Anthropic had made their own Docs and Sheets. Now the Workspace division is scared to death they'll lose market share. So they trot out this stuff.
> Looking forward to a community/open version of this tho it sounds like it needs something hosted to work.
Don't worry, you won't get one.
And it doesn't work if you are signed into multiple Google accounts :/
Today I wanted to fix some mixed formatting in a Google Doc. Ok, I'll use Gemini, it's right there and surely it's the best. Nope, fails twice "Please try again" then suggests just trash formatting. Ok, fine, I connected this to ChatGPT, let's try that. Nope, multiple rounds of "I can't see that document" despite having the plugin configured. Ok, onto Claude... Nope, can't do it (even with a connector setup) but suggests I use this. Ok, sounds good, I'll install the plugin to Google Docs, login to Claude in the new sidebar, and.... "I can't read the document". I give up.
Ironic that this is even news. AI can do anything but probably not fight bureaucracy at Google.
I would’ve expected a connector to Google docs at least 1 year back
ah … wondered when that (or Excel) was going to land - about time
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Never let me find out that Google sends data to Anthropic or OpenAI.