By now I’m sure you know Google announced A LOT of changes for Google+. I seriously considered sharing them all here but honestly it was overwhelming and silly. Instead I’m going to focus on what I think are the most important features for you to know about. These are some pretty cool things Google+ not only announced but are already rolling out for you.
Desktop Layout
This is probably the first thing you’ll notice when you login (if you haven’t yet). It now has a really cool multiple column view. One thing to notice is that up at the top you can swap it back to a single column layout if that is what you prefer. All you need to do is select more and down at the bottom you’ll see the option to switch between the two. Personally, I love the multiple columns because it gives me the ability to really scan through what is happening.
Photo Features
For my money, Google+ has always had some pretty cool photo features, now though they’re AWESOME. First off they’re highlighted in the timeline, you’ll notice that images are appearing much larger. Second you have some very fun edit features available to you. Google+ will automatically highlight better quality photos and even automate a collection of photos.
Hashtags
I love this! This gives you the ability to look at other posts using the same hashtags and, if there are multiple hashtags in the post, you can see all of the hashtags by clicking on the tag. One really cool thing you will notice is that in this post I didn’t actually create or indicate any hashtags but Google+ gave me two in the drop down both #Google+ and #googleplusupdate based on the content of the message.
Hangouts
As you know, I’m a big fan of hangouts, it has a lot of really great uses. That is even more true now. First of all, Hangouts is a stand alone app available for Android, iOS and also available in the Chrome Web Store. Beyond that you can still access it through Google+ and Gmail. It now offers text chat along with free video calls. I’ve already used it a few times since they’ve made some of the changes and it’s really nice. I have had some frustrations with Skype lately and I’m thinking it’s time to make the switch to Hangouts for all of my video calls. It’s especially handy for meetings where I want to share documents or even share screens. Also, old apps like Google Talk, GChat are all being wrapped into Hangouts so everything is together.
Have you had a chance to check out the new features? Hit the comments and tell me what you think of everything!
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