Google has updated their Android app for Google+, brining new features and impressive look to the app. One of the major features of the new app is Hangouts. Now you can start Hangout directly from your mobile phones. Earlier you were only able to join a Hangout from your Android phone and not start one, so this is a major upgrade.

The new app is a revolutionary upgrade in the look and feel department. It looks more like flipping through a magazine with nice animation. The new Google+ experience on Android devices is visually rich as it puts images first.

New Google+ App Makes Facebook Look Like Windows 95
The new Google+ app leaves the Facebook experience behind which has become so confusing to use that I have not posted much on Facebook recently. It's hard to find what's going on in Facebook with the invasive Timeline feature. But that's just me. I was never a Facebook fan once I realized that they hold my data hostage and while they imported everything from my Gmail account, they denied access to let me export my Facebook data to Gmail. Facebook is a one way traffic, it's a black hole which devours all your data and shares with partners like Yahoo! and Microsoft to exploit. My wife is a heavy Facebook user and when I showed her the new Google+ app, her jaws dropped. I could see her eyes sparkle.

What's new?
Beyond Hangouts which is the star of the show, the most noticeable feature is the visual appeal. The emphasis is on images if available with the post. The text appears on top of the images.

Home screen has been replaced with a ribbon which slides in and out making it extremely easy to navigate or access the desired region of your Google+ country. It's, as usual, visually appealing and engaging as compared to Windox XP like Facebook app. The ribbon slides in and out, providing quick access to just about everything.

You can down download images directly from the app and make it the wallpaper of your Android device. Another important upgrade is the ability to edit posts from the mobile devices, something that gives Google+ an edge over Facebook where everything it etched in stone and you can't correct your mistakes.

One complain
Only gripe I have is with the color of text that appear on top of the images. At times if the image is rich in white color it's hard to read the text. This is one area of complain. Not that it is impossible to read, but its not elegant.

When you scroll through post, there is a nice animation when the next post appear. This is visually rich and appealing. As we know Google this is evolution of Google+ and we will see more enhancements and improvements over times. I don't find anything to complain in this version. Google has got it all right. If you have not upgraded the Google+ app, do it now.