In the midst of Apple’s WWDC conference, Google quietly updated its Google+ for iOS app with a new photo-editing user interface and its recently unveiled Google+ Stories feature.
For the latter, Google will ask whether you want to review your existing Google+ Stories as soon as you open the Photos section. After a brief summary of the feature – it means Google will automatically create digital photo books using the images and clips you back up – you’ll be reminded about the app’s Location History and Location Reporting options. These aren’t mandatory, but help Google to group your various photos and videos by place.
Similar to Google+ on the Web and the Android app, the new software for iOS devices will show all of the Google+ Stories it’s created so far. You can swipe through and review each of them in turn, making any necessary adjustments and ultimately sharing them elsewhere.
In fact, I think Google+ Stories look better on mobile than they do on the Web; the layout and transitions better suit touch-input and smaller displays.
The updated iOS app also includes a revamped photo-editor. A new row of icons are displayed proudly at the bottom, with fresh tools including Looks, Tune Image, Selective and Details. In short, these are most of the tools and filters that you would normally find in Snapseed – even the vertical/horizontal gestures for selecting and using tools have been brought over for this release.
Elsewhere, Google has added support for reporting abusive communities – an important feature for any lively social network – and the ability to see total content views on users’ profile pages. A hearty update then, and one that brings the iOS app closer in feature parity to its Android counterpart.
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