Manage updates with the Download App
Editors' note: This review has been updated to cover the features added in the latest version.
Google+ for iOS is a clean and intuitive mobile app that has all of the capabilities of its desktop counterpart, save for the games and a few other minor features. The latest version adds photo editing with new filters and cropping tools, along with design tweaks to profile pages and other enhancements.
Gone is the ugly dashboard of icons that greeted you upon opening Google+ in earlier versions. Now, you can zip around this stunning mobile app via a nifty slide-out navigation window by hitting a button at the top left of the screen. This gives you easy access to your Home feed, Profile, Messenger, Hangouts, Photos, and Circles. Also, in the most recent update you get more control over the volume of posts in your stream with tools to limit posts from individual circles and communities.
Home
The Google+ Home screen is your main stream and is the lifeblood of Google+. With the little drop-down at the top, you can choose to show feeds from All Circles, Nearby, What's Hot (trending posts), or any of your individual circles. As of yet, though, you can't create a custom feed with more than one circle (Family & Friends, for instance). Icons are sleek and the large photos that bleed off the sides of the interface are eye-catching.
From your Home screen, you can do almost everything you can in the full desktop version of Google+. You can easily comment on, Reshare, and +1 items, and, of course, you can create and edit your own posts with pictures, videos, and location tags.
Profile
Here, you can see your Google+ public profile page, all of your posts, and all of your photos. Finally, in the latest version, you can now edit your profile information from within the Google+ app, a feature that had been missing in earlier versions. The profile page has also been redesigned with a cleaner look that fits the overall aesthetic of the app better. Three buttons below your profile photo take you to a look at your latest posts; an about section where you can show the places you've lived along with work and education histories; and a place to check out your most recent uploaded photos.
Photos
As expected, this is the hub for all of your photos and videos, but in the latest version of the app the addition of filters and new editing tools give more things you can do with your images. The photo section provides a simple interface for viewing and commenting on images from your circles, images you're tagged in, and, of course, all of the photos in your album. You can also share, add tags to, or download photos.
With the latest update to the Google+ app, you now have some light photo-editing tools as well as a selection of filters. Whether you snap a fresh picture or pull one from your photo library, there's now a button to quickly rotate an image, another to bring up onscreen cropping tools, and a third to add filters to your image before sharing. You can touch a filter for an instant preview and there's a button in the upper right to let you quickly compare the filtered image with the original. I like the new photo features in Google+, but the filters are pretty basic compared with other photo effects apps.
