Category: Google Plus

A couple of weeks ago, a new feature rolled out in Google Plus (G+) that allowed you to leave images in comments on posts.  This was very well received by users on the social platform as it gave a bit more of a personalized response to something (with an image or a GIF) instead of just text.  Now the Google Plus team has expanded that a bit further.  In the latest update, version 8.7 for those keeping score at home, you can now view those images in the replies in full screen and yes, you can save them to your phone to add to that awesome meme or GIF library.

In other words, the images in comments are treated and act like images in an original post on the site.

Google Plus, the social and community site from the Mountain View company, celebrates its 5th birthday today.  The site and service was the 4th attempt by Google to bring forth a social networking site after Buzz, Friend Connect and Orkut all died.  Plus is by far the longest lived of any attempt into this arena by Google and over the course of 2014 and 2015, it looked like it too would end up on the digital trash heap.  But it hasn’t.  Google continues to tweak on it both on the web and in apps for Android and iOS.  It has evolved from a proper head-to-head competitor of Facebook and even Instagram to something different.  Sure it has the elements of those services but it is really more focused on community.  Within Google Plus you can easily find a community of like minded people on a whole range of subjects and interests.  You can create your own topic creations, your own communities and share them with everyone.  Not only is Google Plus surviving, you could make the argument that it is thriving.

The evolution of Google+ marches on and thanks to Google’s Luke Wroblewski, the details of the update to the Android app for the social & community site are now available.  The update has already started rolling to the Google Play Store so if you haven’t received the update yet, you will over the next few days.  The updated version you are looking for is 7.4.0 and it will be available for both Android phones and tablets.

The improvements to Google+ for Android continue to roll and the latest update once again addresses a lot of bug fixes and improvements.  News of the new 7.3 version came via Google’s Luke Wroblewski on his Google+ profile and outlines a significant number of changes that are happening in the social network & community app.  The update has been pushed to the Google Play Store but it may be a day or two before all users see it on their devices.

As the revamp and rebirth of Google Plus continues, another update has been made to the site to improve the user experience.  News of the update came from Luke Wroblewski, a Googler who is working on the project and follows up an announcement he made earlier in the week around the Android app update for the social & community site.

The updates to Google Plus that Luke announced includes 37 bug fixes but also some streamlined features and added features.  For example, you can now pin posts to your Profile and the update brings an easy way to move your posts into a Collection.  Lastly, there is an improved and simpler invite to a Community feature in the update.

There are a lot of cool changes coming to the next update of Google Plus for Android which should be rolling out this week.  Google’s Luke Wroblewski posted on his Google+ profile some of the changes that are coming in version 7.0.0 of the app.  As he put in his post, this includes two of the most requested Android fixes so he and the team are certainly listening to users of the new-and-improved Google+.

Specific to what is being addressed in the update, Luke outlines them in his post and provided a great infographic which I have linked to after the break.

• 69 bugs fixed
• 14 accessibility issues addressed
• Automatically hide the bottom tab bar when scrolling (note: not on Notifications screen yet)
• The home stream now remembers your position when you return to it (after going to a different screen like Notifications)
• Search now displays autocomplete suggestions as you type
• If you have no Collections or Communities visible on your profile, we include a prompt for you to add one

That’s a huge number of fixes and improvements that users can expect to see when the update comes out via an OTA update.