Google introduced its eSignature feature earlier this year for Google Docs, allowing users to request, track, and add signatures to official contracts. It's now being expanded to request electronic signatures on PDF files stored in Google Drive.
For the unversed, an eSignature or electronic signature is a digital equivalent of a handwritten signature. It can be used to sign documents faster and more conveniently than traditional paper-based methods.
Among various things, Google's eSignature feature lets you request signatures from multiple users, including non-Gmail users. You can view the status of pending signatures and find completed contracts, keep contract templates to initiate multiple eSignature requests, and view an audit trail of completed contracts.
The search giant explained that this added capability in Google Drive supports custom fields such as phone number, job title, company, and more. Upon receiving a request, you can sign a contract from a desktop or a mobile device.
Workspace admins can enable/disable eSignatures through the Google Admin Console. They can make changes for an organizational unit such as a department or a team. Note that a PDF file gets locked after you initiate a signature request, and you can't change it. You can still organize it in your Drive, for instance, if you want to change its location.
Google has started the gradual rollout of eSignature support for PDF files. It's available to select Workspace tiers, including Business (Standard/Plus), Enterprise (Starter/Standard/Plus), Essentials and Enterprise Essentials Plus, Education Plus, and individual subscribers. It will take about two weeks to reach all eligible users.
This adds to the new features Google has been baking for Drive. In recent updates, the search giant rolled out a new beta version of Google Drive for Windows on ARM PCs, allowed admins to migrate OneDrive data to Google Drive, and added an access restriction option for shared folders.
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