+Google Plus Daily are often the first to spot changes on Google+ sometimes hours before an announcement, and we've spotted a biggie today.
When clicking on the gear menu and selecting "Help", no longer will you be taken to a new page for you to peruse the help centre. Now, pressing "Help" brings up an overlay pop-up with a search box with links to suggested articles.
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| The newly updated help feature is an improvement in almost every way |
The updated help feature invites you to search by asking "How can I help you?" within the search box itself. Searches are displayed inline, and fetching of results is almost instantaneous. It's all very dynamic.
You can resize the interface, just drag one of the edges across to resize, or just click the button on the top-right to have it automatically scale up to fit the article without needing to scroll. You can also drag the new help feature around, which could be useful if you're following steps in a help article.
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| Resize and close in the click of a button |
You can still access the full support page by clicking "Explore Help" seen at the bottom left of the new interface.
New Feedback Tool
Clicking "Send feedback" on the new help centre brings up an updated and simplified feedback tool, allowing you to send feedback in just one click, where previously the tool would take you through several steps.
The updated feedback tool allows you to write a brief description, and it will take a screenshot (just check the box) and include system information. Once you're done, just hit "Send" and it will wing its way to the relevant team at Google. Now that sending feedback has been combined into one simple step, it's a lot quicker than before.
As of now, the updated feedback tool is only accessible via the link provided by Help. Clicking "Send feedback" the normal way, ie direct via the gear menu, will take you to the old multi-step version (for now).
Both of these changes should be rolling out to everyone over the next day, so keep an eye out!
These changes have yet to be announced, but as we've uncovered them early, we'll probably see an official announcement at least for the improved help functionality a little later today.
These changes have yet to be announced, but as we've uncovered them early, we'll probably see an official announcement at least for the improved help functionality a little later today.