Want to highlight a helpful answer? Upvote!

Did someone help you, or did an answer or User Tip resolve your issue? Upvote by selecting the upvote arrow. Your feedback helps others! Learn more about when to upvote >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Using two google docs side by side on iPadOS

A while back, under iOS11, I asked whether we could open two google docs side by side on an iPad, and the answer was along the lines of: "no because iOS doesn't offer to open to instances of the same app". But since iPadOS 13, this is no longer true: we can open two Pages next to each other, two Words, etc. But somehow Google Docs still refuses to be opened twice… So one can delete Google Docs and Google Drive to use them in Safari… but having two google docs side by side in Safari does not work very well. Notably, there is no reliable way to move from writing in one of the documents to writing in the other. I thought a fix for that might be to have the Google Docs app side by side with the Safari web google docs… and this does solve switching from writing in one document to another, except one can no longer open a new document on the Safari web drive… it automatically opens in the app, replacing the previous open document instead… Any solutions?

iPad Pro, iPadOS 14

Posted on Jul 18, 2020 12:03 AM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Jul 26, 2020 5:30 PM

While it is indeed up to Google on whether they wish their app to support Split View or not, it seems rather up to Apple's iPadOS Safari to be able to tell in which window we are writing. Indeed, two google docs side-by-side work online in Safari on the Mac, and given that the iPadOS Safari is supposed to be like a desktop browser, this should work.


Fortunately, I have found an acceptable way around the problem: one must have Safari and the Google suite of apps, and when wishing to have two windows side-by-side, one of them should be in Safari and the other in the app. Of course, opening a document in Safari will then open it in the app… but to prevent this, one can press on 'Command' while opening the document, and it will be opened in the Safari window.

Similar questions

2 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Jul 26, 2020 5:30 PM in response to QuickPost

While it is indeed up to Google on whether they wish their app to support Split View or not, it seems rather up to Apple's iPadOS Safari to be able to tell in which window we are writing. Indeed, two google docs side-by-side work online in Safari on the Mac, and given that the iPadOS Safari is supposed to be like a desktop browser, this should work.


Fortunately, I have found an acceptable way around the problem: one must have Safari and the Google suite of apps, and when wishing to have two windows side-by-side, one of them should be in Safari and the other in the app. Of course, opening a document in Safari will then open it in the app… but to prevent this, one can press on 'Command' while opening the document, and it will be opened in the Safari window.

Using two google docs side by side on iPadOS

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.