App Review: Google+ for Tablets and the Revised UI

So Google decided to drop us a new UI for the Google+ app, which at least to me was very welcome.  Honestly, I couldn’t stand the previous version as it was clunky and annoyingly over-cropped photos in the timeline.

Tablet owners got an extra perk  as the UI is “enhanced”.  I love that word, it makes me feel special.  I finally got a chance to hope on my tab and update to see what they did, and I’ll admit I’m highly impressed.

The new UI is freaking beautiful.  The posts in the time line really stand out and no longer seemed crunched in together.  Scrolling is smooth and seamless and the gestures for pulling up info in each post is a nice touch.

Hangouts still need some work.  I found it disconnecting me a lot on my wifi connection with strong signal strength.  They added in the camera switch when someone talks which you get on the web version, which works pretty well for the most part.  There’s still some delay before it swaps around so hopefully it’ll be patched up soon to speed it up.  To bring up the menu for turning your camera and mic on and off, simply press toward the top of the screen.  Be quick though, as it fades the menu back out fairly quick at times.

As fellow staff member Cliff has ranted about numerous times since it went live, there’s no one click button to post something.  It’s now a drop down menu which gives you the option to share a thought, photo, or location. This is no big issue.  Cliff is just real picky.

All in all, they did a hell of a job with the update for the tablets and it’s a nice “user experience”.  As much as I hate that term, it actually relates in this case.  The UI takes solid advantage of having that bigger tablet screen and is very enjoyable.

Now enjoy some screens I took!