How to use smart chips in google docs and sheets

In Google Docs and Sheets, you can make your documents and spreadsheets more interactive by adding smart chips to them. These are highlighted portions of text; when you move the pointer over one of them, a small card that contains more information pops open.

For example, a smart chip containing a co-worker’s name opens a card with their contact info, or a smart chip with the name of a business opens a card showing its map location. Other types of smart chips include dates, links to related files or meetings, and interactive dropdowns.

Smart chips are mainly meant to be used on documents or spreadsheets that you’re sharing with others — such as a project document you’re collaborating on with co-workers. The chips help provide extra information to other people viewing and interacting with your document or spreadsheet. Your collaborators can update existing smart chips and add new ones.

A related feature in Google Docs is called building blocks. Meant to be used in conjunction with smart chips, these are mini-templates that you can insert in your documents for tracking projects, drafting emails, and more. Like smart chips, building blocks are designed for collaborative work.

On the back end, smart chips and building blocks connect with other Google Workspace apps and services. Say, for instance, a co-worker’s contact info changes. When their information is changed in the corporate directory or in your Google Contacts, a smart chip for that co-worker embedded in a document or spreadsheet will be updated automatically.

It’s all part of Google’s “smart canvas” concept for enhancing its Workspace apps to make them “more flexible, interactive, and intelligent,” according to the company. To take full advantage of these new features, you’ll need a Google Workspace account, but many of them are available to users with free Google accounts.