Google released an upgraded version of their Google+ app for iOS devices on May 9 that brings a more savory design and feature set to the tech giant's social network on the iPhone.
The new Google+ 2.0 app sports crisper fonts and larger images, as well as an easy-to-use interface.
A host of new well-designed visual elements make the Google+ stream more pleasant and intuitive to navigate.
Previously, the Google+ app closely resembled the mobile version of the Google+ site, and there was little difference between using the app and simply browsing Google+ in the iPhone's Safari app.
The 2.0 Google+ app changes things up significantly, particularly with a user's stream, which now features large images with text overlaid on top to represent friends' updates.
Home team: what about Android?
Google decided to roll out the new version of the Google+ app on iOS first before Android, but a company spokesperson assured TechRadar that the Android version "is just around the corner."
"Our overall goal is to create a consistent, beautiful and simple experience for all mobile Google+ users," the spokesperson wrote in an email. "We aim get new updates for our mobile apps in the hands of users as quickly as possible."
Google has still yet to release an official Google+ app with native support for Apple's iPad, and there's been no word on whether that's in the pipeline as well.
The redesigned UI
Speculation suggests that Google's recent "acqui-hire," Kevin Rose and the Milk team, could be behind Google+ 2.0's mobile UI redesign.
Google previously confirmed that the new hires would be concentrated on "social efforts." They may have contributed some design to the new iOS app, though it's unlikely they created the entire thing in under two months.
Google's Senior VP Vic Gundotra said in a statement:
"Sharing is deeply sensory. From cooking a favorite meal to getting together with friends, it's the smells and the stories and the smiles that make human connections so essential. With Google+ we want to extend these moments online, so it's only right to focus on the most personal of personal computers: your mobile phone.
"To be clear, we're not interested in a mobile or social experience that's just smaller. We're embracing the sensor-rich smartphone (with its touchable screen and high-density display), and transforming Google+ into something more intimate, and more expressive. Today's new iPhone app is an important step in this direction - toward a simpler, more beautiful Google."
Via USA Today
