I have Microsoft 365 basic and a complete desktop license, so I get all the relevant powerpoint features. This is clearly better tool.
Still every time I need to make a presentation, I find myself to open the Google slide.
5
My brain is not a stall when I open Google Slide
Google slides give me less than 30 templates to choose, and honestly, this is correct. I launch the app, click through the template gallery, and within seconds I have found something that works for my presentation.
PowerPoint is a completely different story. On mobile, you get some decent slide themes, but they are not a complete template. You are still designing everything from scratches.
The web version teases you with a template, then redirects on the desktop app to use them. And if you are only stuck with Microsoft 365 basic tier, then you are out of luck.
Even when you can reach the full template library of PowerPoint on the desktop app, it is heavy. There are hundreds of options, each needs me to download, preview and probably remove, if it is not quite correct.
Do you know that you get brain freeze when you encounter a lot of options? Every time I opens the template gallery of PowerPoint, I am.
To not rain on the PowerPoint parade, it starts with me writing my points and starts the Google slide when I am starting with an empty slide. But let’s be honest – it’s not how we design presentations these days.
4
It is easy to edit on a walk
At first glance, Google slides and powerpoints look very similar on mobile. Both edit you presentations, add lessons, and insert images. All the basics are.
However, once you actually start using them, Google slides only feel more comfortable – perhaps because I have been living on mobile for years in Google’s ecosystem. I am constantly switching between doors, sheets and gmail on my phone, so jumping into the slide looks just like another nature.
The interface of the landing page is the same whether I am on my browser or layout on my phone, the same navigation, and a large extent everything. When I open the slides app, all my recent presentations are there with large, clear thumbnails, as if it is on my browser. This is also the same interface I see everywhere in Google’s suite.
In fact, PowerPoint is not bad on mobile, but every time I have to use the app on my phone, there is always a minor mental adjustment.
3
I never lose a track of versions because only one is really only one
Anyone who cooperates on the powerpoint presentation knows the version control. Some download the change, makes the change offline, then emails it back with the “final version of the mike” in the subject row. Meanwhile, three other people are working on the online actual version, and now you are trying to merge all changes manually.
Google slides completely kills this problem. There is a presentation, period. Everyone edits the same document in real time, whether they are technology-loving or not. There is no option to download the file and edit it on the desktop app.
I also feel easy and comfortable to see people working in Google slide. And if I only want a response, I can only share it with commentary access, so my team members can suggest changes without breaking anything.
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2
Slide quick cooperation makes socially easy
PowerPoint is a social friction for cooperation that we do not talk enough. When I share a PowerPoint file, I essentially ask someone to jump through the hops. Download this file. Make sure you have the right software and subscription. Find out to get your changes back. Oh, and hope that nothing will break in this process.
It is not that any of these steps are particularly difficult, but they only make enough friction to hesitate people.
With Google slides, I just send them a link, and they are looking at my presentation immediately. So as long as they have their Google account signed, almost all have, they can leave the comments in their browser right, and I see the response immediately.
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Even when I start a presentation in PowerPoint, I usually export it and upload it on the Google slide to share it with others. At that point, why not leave additional steps and simply start in the slide?
1
I like the integration of Gemini in the slide above Copilot in PowerPoint
Neither app provides complete AI aid on mobile, but desktop experience is a different case.
To get a copilot to work with PowerPoint, you need the right subscription (Microsoft 365 Copilot or Copilot Pro). Alternatively, you can use the powerpoint online with the edge browser to reach the free version. But then, Copilot feels that the edge of your screen is strangely docked. It is functional, but it does not seem that it is.
Gemini is full opposite in Google slides. The moment I open a presentation, there is Gemini, ready to help. It just appears (because I am enrolled in the workpiece laboratories) and immediately start suggesting ways to improve the work I am doing.
Unlike the Copilot Docking option, where I am just copying and sticking the reactions, Gemini does not just give reactions. It can directly manufacture the material in my slide. I can ask it to create a full slide about quarterly sales trends, and it will generate the text, format it properly, and leave it right in my presentation.
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PowerPoint is purposefully more powerful tool. It has more features, more templates, more everything. I pay for it, and I know what it can do. But for most of my presentations, I choose Google slides without any hesitation.
Sometimes the best tool is one that withdraws from your way, not with the most capabilities. More often than the powerpoint, Google slides let me focus on my real message rather than wrestling with software. This is usually exactly what I need.
