This is the fourth article in the series App of the Week series.
Google has put all of their eggs into the basket known as Google+. Now they have made several big changes to the social network which has also spurred a major update to their iOS app that may have set the standard for all of the social networking apps out there. The application is visually beautiful, perfect iOS push notifications, and better navigation between Google+’s features.
The Good
Let’s just get it out there: this is the best iOS app for a social network to date.
- Absolutely Beautiful Google has really raised the bar for Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking apps. It is not enough now to simply comment and post photos on your accounts. The colors, layout, and smoothness of the app is wonderful.
- Easy Hangouts Unlike the last version, we now can see all of the thumbnails in the hangout on our mobile devices. Even better, it seems to stream better than ever before.
- Intuitive Many apps, you have to sort of figure out how to use them. This app uses gestures, buttons, and everything else so that it has nearly no “learning curve” to get the hang of it. We designed!
The Bad
They may have taken the lead in the social networking mobile apps department, but there are still a few things that need to be fixed.
- Switching To Pages One UI fix that is still “broken” is the issue of switching from a personal account to our pages. It would seem that they have even removed the ability to run Google+ from their iOS app. (Are they going to copy Facebook and make a separate app solely for pages? Ugh!)
- Instant Uploads I want some online privacy and instant uploads breaks that boundary pretty significantly. Why? I “instantly” turned it off.
- Unnecessary Streams The What’s Hot stream and Nearby stream are something I might use for five seconds and then never return to. Do they really think it will be popular?
What do you love or hate about the latest Google+ iOS app?
Dustin W. Stout says
I love the instant uploads feature! Such a time saver, AND life-saver if I need to free up space quickly on my device! Why do you think it encroaches on your online privacy?
seventy8Productions says
I think that it made me nervous when the instant uploads was assumed to be used by the user when it asked to post my photos to my account without me even asking or wanting to.
Dustin W. Stout says
Still don’t understand why some folks don’t like the automatic backup (aka Instant Uploads) feature. That thing is amazing!
seventy8Productions says
I don’t want my life on Google+. So no reason to instant upload.