What's New on Google+: Locations

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"Locations" is a new feature built into the Google+ app for Android which allows you to see your friends on the map in real time. But how does it fare with Latitude, Google's now stale location service?

When I leaked the new Google+ feature from the then pending update, I assumed that Locations would be an updated and Google+ integrated version of Latitude. I couldn't have been more wrong. The point of Locations is to see the people in your circles who has shared their location with you on the map, just like Latitude, except that Google's new location service is buggy (as of time of posting), has less features and uses a stripped down, basic version of Maps.
And what's with the Android 2.2 (Froyo) vibe?
Latitude is part of Google Maps, which means that it is possible to select the visibility of layers and the viewing of contacts with stale locations. Latitude also had check-in features, pinging requests, and would allow you to navigate to a specified user on the map and more. All this has been stripped out of the new Locations feature, which even basic gestures such as pinch-to-zoom work horribly.

There are some benefits of Locations though; If a user has enabled location reporting and sharing, you'll see their location on their Google+ profile on both the desktop web and mobile apps. The feature also allows you to invite people on Google+, via Google+.

It doesn't make any sense for Google to maintain two location services at the same time, so I think we'll see Latitude disappear soon (probably when the new Maps for Android is released). And if they do discontinue Latitude, we should hopefully be seeing check-in support and other missing features appear sometime too.

Yes, version 1 of Locations is buggy and pretty much useless for now, but it is very likely Google will be improving the feature in future versions. +Alex Reusch makes some good points on the current state of the feature and how it can be improved, in our Google+ Updates community.

Do you use Locations or will you be sticking with Latitude for now?