On Thursday, Google rolled out a new version of Google+ to the Google Play Store. This brings the app on up to version 8.0, and brings in a few new features. Although it is mostly interface tweaks to the app. First up, there is now a prompt at the top of your screen to make a post. The main reason why this is here is to get users to post more on Google+. Now this isn’t a floating box, so it won’t take up more of your display when scrolling through your feed, and is only shown on the “Home” feed, and not within other feeds. The FAB or Floating Action Button is still there, and appears when you scroll down the screen. Using the FAB, you’ll still be able to create new posts. As Googler Luke Wroblewski said on his Google+ post announcing these changes “The post box at the top provides clearer control” and that the post box is “at the top of home stream only”.
That’s not all that is new in this update however. The Google+ team has also added some new options for reporting abuse within the social network. You can now provide additional details when reporting these posts. This does add a few more taps, but it is more beneficial to Google in determining whether said posts are abusive or not. The whole idea here is for Google+ to remain a great place to “connect around shared interests”.
Google+ also adds QUIC in this update, which will improve latency for slow networks. Especially helpful for those that are in emerging countries where 4G LTE isn’t available. The update brings Help and Send Feedback options into the main slide-out menu. Of course, this update addresses 8 bugs that were fixed and 5 accessibility issues that were also fixed.
Wroblewski who is a member of the Google+ team, also noted on his post that they are welcoming feedback on the Google+ update and will take all feedback into account with future updates. For those that may have an annoyance with a feature, or experiencing some weird behavior within the app, this is a great way to get it dealt with. You can download the new version of Google+ at the link below.
Download: Google+ v8.0