Updates have introduced features that use machine learning, including "Explore", which offers answers based on natural language questions in the spreadsheet.

Google Sheets originated from XL2Web, a web-based spreadsheet application developed by 2Web Technologies, founded by Jonathan Rochelle and Farzad "Fuzzy" Khosrowshahi.

[8][9] The limited test was later replaced with a beta version available to all Google Account holders, around the same time as an official announcement press release was issued.

[12] In June 2012, Google acquired Quickoffice, a freeware proprietary productivity suite for mobile devices.

[20] Google Sheets serves as a collaborative tool for cooperative editing of spreadsheets in real time.

The revision history allows users to see the additions made to a document, with each author distinguished by color.

Files can be exported to a user's local computer in a variety of formats such as PDF and Office Open XML.

[24] Launched for the entire Drive suite in September 2016, "Explore" enables additional functionality through machine learning.

[25][26][27] In Google Sheets, Explore enables users to ask questions, such as "How many units were sold on Black Friday?"

In June 2017, Google expanded the Explore feature in Google Sheets to automatically build charts and visualize data[28][29] and again expanded it in December to feature machine learning capable of automatically creating pivot tables.

When a user visits Google Drive or Sheets, any files containing tasks assigned to them will be highlighted with a badge.

[33] To view and edit spreadsheets offline on a computer, users need to be using the Chromium-based web browser (e.g., Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge).

[40] Sheets can produce Google Charts[41] and has a third-party plugin which allows for integration with Wikipedia.