The "biggie" is Auto Awesome Stories, which combine your photos, videos and the places you visit into travelogues. As you can expect, Auto Awesome Stories is an interactive visual experience which when created, will notify you on your device or on the desktop.
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| Auto Awesome Stories |
UI Overhaul - Red is the New Grey
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| A refined, red user interface graces Google+ for Android |
Gone goes the bland grey that the Android app has used for well over the year; Google+ for Android now dons a rich, dark red branding throughout the app, and mainly visible on the bar at the top. I'm sure there'll be conflicting opinions about this one, but I welcome the fresh lick of paint.
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| First-start tour |
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| First-start tour |
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| A simpler and cleaner sharebox design |
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On Demand Auto Awesome
The original idea of Auto Awesome was to "gift" you an enhanced image or video via a notification without any input from the user. However, Auto Awesome Motion (creates an animation from your photos) has been so popular, users have been capturing photos in quick succession and hoping a Motion Auto Awesome will be created for them upon upload to Auto Backup.
As announced today by +Dave Besbris, Auto Awesome Motion and Photobooth-style images can be created on demand. That's right; no more waiting around!
To do this, head to Photos in the new Android app, hit the plus button and select either Motion or Mix. Tadah!
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| Create new Auto Awesomes manually (should it now be called Manual Awesome?) |
Content Views Now on Mobile
Content views rolled out to the Google+ desktop site early April, which displays the total amount of times your content has been viewed on your profile. While initially controversial, the view count on profiles and pages is a good way to gauge yours and others' reach, and now the feature is rolling out as part of today's update.
Locations and the Removal of Local
Locations, the feature in which you can see the people in your circles on a map, has remained largely the same in Google+ v4.4, with only minor (but useful) additions.
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| Quick buttons for directions and Hangouts is an unmentioned update |
Tap a person on the map and swipe to the left to reveal new, what I call, "Quick buttons." These allow you to send a message to the person on Hangouts or, if you fancy, directions to that person which will open up in Google Maps.
As for Google+ Local, the feature seems to have been stripped from the app which isn't surprising considering it duplicated functionality present in Google Maps. The removal of Local will allow the development to focus more on other features, leaving the maps stuff to the Maps team.
As for Google+ Local, the feature seems to have been stripped from the app which isn't surprising considering it duplicated functionality present in Google Maps. The removal of Local will allow the development to focus more on other features, leaving the maps stuff to the Maps team.
Changelog
Here's the official changelog from new head honcho +Dave Besbris himself:
1. Auto Awesome Stories now combine your photos, videos and the places you visit into beautiful travelogues. You can read more at http://goo.gl/JGgzil.
2. Auto Awesome Movies are now available on Android, iOS and the web, so lots more people will receive highlight reels of their photos and videos. Here’s one example: http://goo.gl/9ljcdj.
3. You can now create animated GIFs and photobooth-style images on demand. Just tap the new plus button in Photos, and select either Motion or Mix.
4. Really big photo libraries are now supported on Android, so you can access your many thousands of photos quickly and easily.
5. You can now browse your entire photo library, as well as your highlights, by date. Just drag the new scroll bar to move forwards or backwards in time.
6. Profiles now display total content views on both Android and the web. (You can choose to show or hide this number via settings.)
7. A new navigation menu makes it easier to switch between your favorite circles and communities, as well as other places in the app.
8. It’s a lot easier to share content from your phone or tablet. To give it a try, just tap the new pencil icon at the bottom right of the stream.
9. The app menu now slides away as you move down the stream, letting posts fill the entire screen.
iOS user?
If you're an iOS user, you don't have to feel completely left out of the update party as Auto Awesome Movies are now available for iOS devices and the web after being exclusive to Android for over 6 months. As for Stories? Well fortunately that is slated to be coming soon.
Version 4.4 of the app is rolling out on Google Play over the course of the next few days, so sit tight!
What feature are you most excited about?
Version 4.4 of the app is rolling out on Google Play over the course of the next few days, so sit tight!
What feature are you most excited about?
Source and some images: David Besbris