In Short: Google+ app teardown reveals some new and interesting features are on the way. The source decided to investigate Google+ v10.15 update, and found some interesting strings in there. According to the provided info, custom streams could be on the way to Google+, as several strings named ‘custom stream’ appeared in the APK teardown. Now, it seems like there will be a ‘Streams Home’ page available in a future version of the app which will be used for managing and also accessing those streams. You will be able to give a title and a description to each of those streams, though some of you are probably wondering how is this any different than ‘Circle Streams’ that are available, well, aside from the description part, we’re not yet sure, but more info should surface soon. On top of custom streams, an upcoming update will also bring unread counts to the table, it seems.
Background: Google+ has changed a lot over the years, and even though a number of reports over time suggested that Google may end up scrapping Google+ as a whole, that social network is still alive and kicking. Google+ may not have the numbers of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Snapchat, but it has its own niche, and there are plenty of users on it that actually enjoy using it, so hopefully, Google will not make the same move as it did with Inbox. Google+ has been around since June 2011, which means it has been over 7 years since Google launched it. Back in 2015, it had 111 million active users, and it would be interesting to see how many users are actively using this social network in 2018, but unfortunately, we do not have such numbers available at the moment.
Impact: Now, neither of these updates may seem exciting, at least at first, but we really do not have any additional info regarding custom streams, while unread counts may suggest a big change for Google+. Unread counts could suggest that Google plans to show firm numbers fo posts that have come arrived since you last checked your feed, which is not the case at the moment, as Google+ never showed you upcoming posts chronologically… this update could change all that, and if that ends up being the case, it will be a huge update indeed.