Google+ Stories

Google+ Photos added a new feature called Stories. Google automatically groups some of your best photos and videos, based on the date and the place where they were taken, and creates animated stories you can edit and share with other people.

"Google+ Stories can automatically weave your photos, videos and the places you visited into a beautiful travelogue. No more sifting through photos for your best shots, racking your brain for the sights you saw, or letting your videos collect virtual dust. We'll just gift you a story after you get home. This way you can relive your favorite moments, share them with others, and remember why you traveled in the first place," explains Google.

Here's an example:

To find all the stories generated from your photos, go to Google+ Photos, click "More" next to "All photos" and select "Stories". They have pretty accurate titles like: "Friday afternoon in Istanbul", "Trip to Paris", "Weekend in Belfast".

There are many other new features in Google+:

* Auto Awesome Movies are now available on Android, iOS and the web, so lots more people will receive highlight reels of their photos and videos.

* You can now create animated GIFs and photobooth-style images on demand. Just tap the new plus button in Photos, and select either Motion or Mix. (Android only?)

* You can now browse your entire photo library, as well as your highlights, by date. Just drag the new scroll bar to move forwards or backwards in time.

* Really big photo libraries are now supported on Android, so you can access your many thousands of photos quickly and easily.

* You can now browse your entire photo library, as well as your highlights, by date. Just drag the new scroll bar to move forwards or backwards in time.

*  A new navigation menu makes it easier to switch between your favorite circles and communities, as well as other places in the app.

*  It's a lot easier to share content from your phone or tablet. To give it a try, just tap the new pencil icon at the bottom right of the stream.

*  The app menu now slides away as you move down the stream, letting posts fill the entire screen.

Rounded Google+ Notification Badge

After making profile pictures from the navigation bar round, Google+ tweaked the badge number displayed next to the bell icon. The counter is now in a red circle like in iOS, instead of a red square.

Here's a similar screenshot from July 2013:

As you can see there are many subtle changes: there's a "+" next to the name, the bell icon has a different color, the "share" button is smaller, the profile picture is circular, borders and the arrow icon are missing.

{ via Moritz }

Google+ Easter Egg for Valentine's Day

Google+ has a special Easter Egg for Valentine's Day. Mr. Jingles, the Google+ mascot, transformed into a heart. You can find the animation in the Google+ notification box: in Google+ for desktop, Google+ mobile apps and most Google services.

Here's the animation that's displayed when you click the icon. This is the "retina" double-sized version:

"I <3 you, people of Google+! You've made me feel like your Valentine many times over," says Mr. Jingles.

You can also check the costumes for New Year's party, Christmas, Thanksgiving Day, Halloween, 15 years of Google and 2 years of Google+.

Circular Profile Pictures in Google's Navigation Bar

Google no longer shows the square profile image in the navigation bar. Now it shows a round image, just like in Google+.

The new version looks nice and makes the Google bar more consistent. Some Google services still use the old version: YouTube, Blogger.

{ Thanks, Florian K. }

Send Email to Your Google+ Circles

Usually, if you want to send someone an email, you are supposed to know the email address, but that's not always the case. Many sites use contact forms and now it's very easy to create one using Google Drive. A few years ago, Google Profiles added a contact form, but it was disabled by default. Google+ made it easy to send someone a message: just add "+", mention his name and he will probably receive a notification, depending on his notification settings.

Now you can send email to the people from your Google+ circles even if you don't have their email addresses. Gmail will show suggestions from your Google+ circles when you compose an email and will send your email without showing you the address. "Your email address isn't visible to a Google+ connection unless you send that person an email, and likewise, that person's email address isn't visible to you unless they send you an email."

Suggestions from Google+ are placed at the bottom of the list, below the suggestions from your address book. As you can see, email addresses aren't included. Google will only show suggestions from your circles, but you can add anyone to your circles.

What happens when you send an email to someone? If you are in his circles, the message will be placed in the Personal inbox tab. Otherwise, it will be added to the Social tab and you won't be able to send another message until the person responds or adds you to his circles.

By default, anyone who circles you can send you an email message in Gmail. If you have many followers, the default setting will limit the messages to your circles. You can alway edit the scope of this feature in Gmail's settings. Find the "Email via Google+" section and choose from "Anyone on Google+", "Extended circles", "Circles" and "No one". Pick "No one" to completely disable this feature.

The feature is gradually rolled out. You'll receive a message from Google with the following subject: "Gmail update: Reach more people you know". It starts like this: "Ever wanted to email someone you know, but haven't yet exchanged email addresses? Starting this week, when you're composing a new email, Gmail will suggest your Google+ connections as recipients, even if you haven't exchanged email addresses yet." Even if you receive the message, you might still have to wait until the feature is enabled. "You can only send emails to your Google+ connections with the desktop version of Gmail," informs the Gmail help center.

Gmail is now even more integrated with Google+. Gmail shows your circles in the sidebar, loads Google+ notifications and allows you to reply from the Gmail interface and now it lets you send email to Google+ users without knowing their addresses.

The new feature makes Gmail more useful because it unlocks the power of circles, but it can also lead to more spam. Since anyone who adds you to a circle can send you an email, you'll have to deal with that. If you have many followers, Google already limits this feature to your circles. You can also receive spam messages in Google+, so that's not something new.

It's interesting that the default setting for most people is "anyone". The default setting for notifications and the contact form is "extended circles", which include your circles and your circles' circles. The contact form from the profile is even disabled by default.

{ Thanks, Chaim. }