How to add an electronic signature in Google Docs on iPhone
What you actually have is a Google Docs file that lives online rather than on your phone. Here is how it gets signed and sent back, on the phone in your hand — no printer, no scanner, no account.
Option A · free · nothing to install
The PDF export in Google Docs, then Apple Markup — both free
Send a copy → PDF is part of the free Google Docs app, and Markup is part of iOS. Google also sells an eSignature feature on some paid Workspace plans; if your organisation already pays for it, use that instead of anything else.
- Open what you have in Google Docs. What you are dealing with is a Google Docs file that lives online rather than on your phone.
- Get it to a screen that can sign. In the Google Docs app tap •••, choose Share & export, then Send a copy, and pick PDF. The PDF lands in the share sheet where Markup or a signing app can take it.
- Sign it. Tap the + at the bottom right of Markup, choose Signature, sign with your fingertip, tap Done, then drag the signature onto the line and pull the blue handles until it sits on the line rather than through the text underneath.
- Send it back. Send the signed PDF from the signing app, or upload it back to Drive as a separate file.
If this is a one-off, stop here. The free route above signs the document and sends it back. Where it gets slow is repetition: Apple Markup holds one signature and no initials, text boxes do not snap to the form’s lines, there is no date shortcut, and nothing you place is flattened into the page.
Option B · with Signed
Sign it with Signed instead
Same document, fewer taps — because the signature, the initials and the date are already saved, and everything you place is flattened into the exported PDF.
- Share the PDF into Signed. From the same share sheet you reached out of Google Docs, pick Signed — or import the PDF from inside the app. It stays on your iPhone: nothing is uploaded and there is no cloud copy.
- Drop in the signature you already saved. Tap the signature line and place the signature you made once — drawn with a fingertip, typed in a real handwriting style, or generated with AI. You never redraw it per document.
- Fill in the rest of the page. Add the date, your initials, your name, text and checkmarks with the matching tools. Today’s date fills itself in and saved initials are one tap per page.
- Export a flattened PDF and send that. Export the signed copy flattened, so the signature and every field become part of the page rather than a layer someone can drag off it. Then send the signed PDF from the signing app, or upload it back to Drive as a separate file.
The catch with Google Docs
A Google Doc has no fixed pages until you export it, so the signature line you can see on screen may not be where you expect in the PDF. Also, signing the PDF does not change the Doc — anyone with edit access can still alter the original text afterwards.
Signed signs PDFs. It does not convert file formats, sync your files, or send documents out for someone else’s signature — which is why anything that is not already a PDF goes through Google Docs’s own export first.
Other office & documents apps
Signing from a different app
See all 62 apps → · know the document but not the app? Pick it by document type → · comparing services instead? See the e-sign alternatives →
Signed is a signing tool, not legal advice. Whether an electronically signed copy is accepted depends on the document, the counterparty and where you are — for anything high-stakes, check what your jurisdiction requires, including whether a notary or witnesses are needed. Google Docs is a trademark of its respective owner and this page is not endorsed by or affiliated with it; Apple, Markup, iPhone and iOS are trademarks of Apple Inc. App interfaces change, so a menu may have moved since this was written.