Tables is a collaborative database program developed out of

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

Area 120 Area 120 is Google's in-house incubator in which employees work on 20% Project product ideas. It has helped develop Gmail, AdSense, Google News, Call Center AI, and Aloud, YouTube's translation and dubbing tool. The Area 120 division was ...

incubator. Tables is available as a

web application A web application (or web app) is application software that is created with web technologies and runs via a web browser. Web applications emerged during the late 1990s and allowed for the server to dynamically build a response to the request, ...

. The app allows users to collaborate in real-time to track work more efficiently using automation.

History

Tables originated as an experiment within

product incubator, and launched to a public beta in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

on September 22, 2020. It was first released as a test for a limited number of early testers on March 5, 2020, and then expanded to a larger early access program on May 5, 2020. Tables is not part of the

Google Drive Google Drive is a file-hosting service and synchronization service developed by Google. Launched on April 24, 2012, Google Drive allows users to store files in the cloud (on Google servers), synchronize files across devices, and share files ...

Google Workspace Google Workspace (formerly G Suite, formerly Google Apps) is a collection of cloud computing, Productivity software, productivity and Collaborative software, collaboration tools, software and products developed and marketed by Google. It con ...

service. In June of 2021, it was announced that the Area 120 experiment was a success and that

Google Cloud Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a suite of cloud computing services offered by Google that provides a series of modular cloud services including computing, data storage, data analytics, and machine learning, alongside a set of management tools ...

"has committed to investing in this product area long-term". In June of 2023, features available in Tables became generally available in

AppSheet AppSheet is a no-code development platform for application software, which allows users to create mobile, tablet, and web applications. It allows using data sources like Google Drive, DropBox, Office 365, and other cloud-based spreadsheet and da ...

as databases. AppSheet Database offers similar features and interface to Tables but integrates with the broader AppSheet platform. As of December 2023, Tables no longer allows new users to enroll in the beta. The developers continue to maintain the current beta version of Tables for existing users, but do not plan on adding new functionality. Users interested in using Tables should consider alternative services like AppSheet Database or

Google Sheets Google Sheets is a spreadsheet application and part of the free, web-based Google Docs Editors suite offered by Google. Google Sheets is available as a web application; a mobile app for: Android, iOS, and as a desktop application on Googl ...

to manage their workflow.

Platforms

Tables is available as a

supported on the

Google Chrome Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, an ...

Microsoft Edge Microsoft Edge is a Proprietary Software, proprietary cross-platform software, cross-platform web browser created by Microsoft and based on the Chromium (web browser), Chromium open-source project, superseding Edge Legacy. In Windows 11, Edge ...

Apple Safari Safari is a web browser developed by Apple Inc., Apple. It is built into several of List of Apple operating systems, Apple's operating systems, including macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS, and uses Apple's open-source software, open-source bro ...

, and

Mozilla Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements curren ...

web browsers.

Key Features

Core concepts

Tables anchors around several core concepts: * Tables: containers of rows and columns of structured data. Columns (aka "fields") define the table structure and enforce data type/format and relationships. * Workspaces: allow users to group tables together in a tabbed interface. Tables can be in more than one workspace. * Views: allow users to create customized views of the data with different layouts, groupings, and filters/sorts applied. Layouts allow you to switch between different ways to visualize the table records, such as a ticket queue, kanban board, or map. * Forms: allow users to collect input without giving access to the table. Tables forms are separate from

Google Forms Google Forms is a survey administration software included as part of the free, web-based Google Docs Editors suite offered by Google. The service also includes Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, Google Drawings, Google Sites, and Goo ...

. * Bots: allow users to automate tasks, such as send emails, update data, or send weekly reports, and send data to 3rd party

webhook In web development, a webhook is a method of augmenting or altering the behavior of a web page or web application with custom callbacks. These callbacks may be maintained, modified, and managed by third-party users who need not be affiliated with ...

s to trigger

Google Chat Google Chat is a Communication software, communication service developed by Google. Initially designed for teams and business environments, it has since been made available for general consumers. It provides Private message, direct messaging, ...

or Slack notifications or

Zapier Zapier is an American multinational software company that offers a platform for automation, integration, and artificial intelligence (AI) orchestration to connect software applications and manage workflows. History Zapier was founded in 2011 i ...

workflows.

Data types

Tables allow users to set specific data types for columns:

Integrations

* Tables allows users to import data directly from a Google Sheet or CSV file, and also performs a one-way recurring sync of data from a table into

. * Person-type columns in Tables allow the user to search for and select Google users from your

Gmail Gmail is the email service provided by Google. it had 1.5 billion active user (computing), users worldwide, making it the largest email service in the world. It also provides a webmail interface, accessible through a web browser, and is also ...

contacts. * Sharing in Tables allows the user to share with existing Google users,

Google Groups Google Groups is a service from Google that provides discussion groups for people sharing common interests. Until February 2024, the Groups service also provided a gateway to Usenet newsgroups, both reading and posting to them, via a shared user ...

, or with their entire work domain. * Tables also offers a public API and the ability to call the Tables API via Apps Script.

Collaboration and revision history

Tables allows users to collaborate in real-time on records in a table. Tables can be shared, opened, and edited by multiple users simultaneously and users are able to see field-by-field changes as collaborators make edits. All changes to table records are automatically saved to Google's servers, and a change history for records are automatically kept so past edits may be viewed and reverted to. Deleted rows, columns, tables, and workspaces can also be restored within a given timeframe.

Sharing and access control

Users can share their tables and workspaces from Tables using similar permissioning roles as

, such as editors, commenters, and viewers. Tables also supports an additional "writer" role that allows users to modify rows in the table, but not the table or columns. Users can share tables and workspaces with other individual Google users,

, or with their entire work domain. Tables and workspaces can be shared independently of each other, and you can restrict access to a table within a workspace to provide more granular control of which users can see which data.

References

External links

*
Official help center
{{Google LLC Collaborative software Google software