Google plus gets 24 new features on Android, iOS

As Christmas and New Year beckon, the Android and iOS app for Google+ have received a gift of their own. According to a post on the official Google+ blog by vice president of engineering, Dave Besbris, the company has introduced 24 new features in the app for its social networking website, which was launched last year. The changes will be seeded via updates later today on both platforms. 

For Android users, Google+ app now has on-the-go profile editing, easier way to post content, andsubtle prompts for notifications. They can also interact with Google+ Communities and subscribe to mobile notifications from circles via their smartphones and tablets. 
However, the biggest update on Google+ for Android comes in photo-sharing. Besbris posted: "On Android, we're now offering full-size backups of your photos (up to 5GB free), in addition to the standard-size option (unlimited free storage at 2048px). Simply turn on Instant Upload and start taking pictures: photos you shoot will be saved to a private album on Google+." 

Photo spheres has also come to Android app for Google+ and though devices running on Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) can create 360-degree panorama pictures, any device operating on Android 2.2 (Froyo) or above can access them. 

Coming to photo-sharing on Apple devices, "On iOS, our new version lets you swipe through photo albums inline; you can tap once to view photos in all their glory; and the iPhone app now applies a subtle pan-zoom-scale effect to pictures in the stream." 

Google has made event planning easier for devices running on Android as well as Apple's iOS. Besbris' post says, "Through Events, you can now send messages to specific guests and see who's opened your invitation. You can invite people through Google+ or by simply copying the URL of your event into an email or IM, and your guests can RSVP with the number of people they're bringing." 

"We're also making it easier to plan a second (and third, and fourth) party this holiday season. Just duplicate your original event, and we'll pull in all the important details," says Besbris' post. Google+ Hangouts, the video chatting feature on the social network, now supports videos at bandwidth of 150kbps, the blog says. 

Google+ Hangouts on Air, the feature that enables live video broadcasting, also gets updated on Android and iOS. The post says, "If you're the only participant, we'll automatically hide the "filmstrip" of faces and expand your video to fill the entire feed." 

Along with that, Google+ for Android will have new emoticons, animated GIFs, birthday reminders in Google Now and a lock screen widget. Apple users can look forward to longer snippets, bigger photos and comments that slide in beneath each post after the update.