This afternoon, Google announced that it has been working on a new version of Google+ that is ready for prime time. Over the past couple of months, Google (with help from users of Google+) realized that a big part of the social platform’s growth was in Communities and Collections, and so that’s where the latest redesign takes its focus.
With Communities, you get a forum-like atmosphere within G+ that allows you to discuss topics with like-minded folks. With Collections, you have a way to bundle together the posts you like by topic, to help you stay organized and on top of your favorite things.
In this new G+, you’ll see in image above and GIF below, that just below the top “Home” tab, there are easy-to-reach shortcuts for Collections and Communities. From within those specific pages, you can quickly find new groups or topics to entertain, or just browse the ones you are already a part of.
Google also said that this new Google+ has been better optimized for mobile, should let you post, search, and connect easier, while keeping up with content.
To try out the new Google+ on the web, be on the lookout for a “Let’s go” button at the top that will let you make the switch. Google did say that not all of the old Google+ features will move over to the new version, so if you want to switch back to the classic, you can do that.
As for mobile apps, the Android and iOS Google+ apps are brand new and will arrive “in the coming days.”
Where is latitude??? New features, lost good old ones???
Nothing really new.
I think Google + has some difficulties to find his positioning. Many
alternatives have been launched since Del.icio.us days.
Some actors like Openoox.com already propose
this principle of link collection to save and share your favorites web contents
if it’s all about communities/discussion forums, how different is g+ compared to other discussion forums out there (hardocp for PC enthusiasts or stackoverflow for coders or reddit for all sorts of things)? thanks
I just hope they address the abysmal location tracking.
I still prefer G+ to FB. The timeline situation over there is crazy. Of course it could be that I signed up for the Beta, so it has largely been buggy for the last year or so. Need to opt out of that. This update just brings better organization to G+. Which is always appreciated.
Did Google just create its own version of Reddit?
Seriously, bottom tabs?! In all of Androids history, Google has always sad no to bottom tabs. Even if I think it’s refreshing seeing new kinds of UI, I don’t understand why they would break their own design guidelines?
Except they’ve had no reason for dissuading bottom tabs except ‘that’s what iOS does’. Holo was plagued with arbitrary restrictions and wonky layouts because they were trying too hard to be distinct rather than functional and half the point of Material was to fix that. Bottom tabs are useful in situations where top tabs aren’t and it’s about time they started using them rather than making a mess of the layout trying to pin the tabs at the top above all reason.
Also the guidelines no longer specifically dissuade bottom tabs and they’ve been used before on iOS and the web, so they’re technically not breaking anything.
Since Android can have soft navigation keys, it’s easy to mistakenly press a navigation button instead of a tab. If you implement a viewpager so you can swipe between the tabs there’s no need to press the tabs.
Old article but I think it catches the reasons why there shouldn’t be tabs at the bottom
http://www.androiduipatterns.com/2011/07/tabs-top-or-bottom.html
Google+ is never going to happen, Gretchen.
G+ has become my RSS feed collector.
I can’t wait to download the new Google+, another app I’ll never use.
I gotta admit. Google has a lot of persistence to deny that this service outside of Hangouts and Photos had failed to catch on.
Have you ever singed in to G+, and actaully engage people there?
I use it as much as I can because it is superior to fb in every way. Unfortunitley, for social media to be work, there needs to be people on it. Any google related community is pretty good however.
I’m so proud of Google for finally embracing bottom tabs. While top tabs definitely have their uses, so many apps have compromised their layouts trying to keep their UI top-weighted when they could have just spread it across both edges, all because Google said ‘don’t use bottom tabs because reasons’.
Please, just die quietly.
Why, so much better than that crap called Facebook!
It used to be; but G+ kinda’ stalled while FB
stole“innovated” comparable UI features. The best thing to ever happen to FB was G+ coming along to show how to improve the UI.I still use G+ for specific communities – I’ll be curious to try the new version to see how well it helps out in those discussion – in the current version, it’s easy to lose threads you wanted to continue following due to the noise from other discussions.
Nobody uses Google+, except you.
Well, good deal. Glad you’re not there!
Well aren’t you a peach.
Sorry, came off a bit defensive. It really is a great alternative to FB. The platform is different in a way that fits what I’m looking for in a social network. To me, FB does have some decent features, but mostly the platform seems overreaching. Also, for the most part, it’s still a place for people to post “look what I can do”. Lots of regurgitating the same material (i.e. 4 years ago, 3 years ago, etc…). Again, sorry to be so pissy, just a sore subject when G+ is downplayed. If you every decide to wonder to the dark side, you’ll notice there a many more people there than you think.
It’s nothing like facebook. G+ is more for following blogs, communities, groups, etc. Facebook is for commenting and sharing photos with Grandma or your old college friends.
When you say that at parties, do people just smile and slowly back away?
Had to:
https://media.giphy.com/media/4pMX5rJ4PYAEM/giphy.gif
That, and please continue to decouple your other services (Play Games, commenting on apps, etc.) from your crappy social network that no one cares about.
Google loses out on feedback from users haven’t allowed Google to force them into signing up for G+. So dumb.