A pictorial delight!

The Google mobile app has now been redesigned and I will give a quick review of it here on the iPhone4.

I found that the previous version was extremely slow. It was so slow that I would abandon it and use the mobile web version in desperation, but after giving the new version a test drive, the mobile web version icon has hit the delete bin pretty fast.

The new interface is a joy to use compared to the previous version. The biggest difference is the promotion of images to the front of the stage. The app is a joy to use and a pictorial delight!

A new slick interface

Once signed in, you are taken immediately to the “All circles” view, so that is different to the previous version, which brought you to a menu choice. Now you are reading the latest post, and can tap “All circles” to be presented with a list of your circles in a vertical scrolling list. You can also create a post from this view as well as selecting to go to your menu view.

If I select the menu view, I can then see that I can choose from my “stream”, “profile”, “messenger”, “photos” and “circles”. You can do a video hangout by using the messenger function, but not the hangouts on air yet on the mobile device.

Now I go back to the “Profile” menu choice and I then find options for the “About”, “Posts” and also “Photos” section of my profile. Not much has changed in the “About”, and “Photos” sections, but the “Posts” section has the scroll function that I like. 

Now I can scan my previous posts by scrolling and it works very well. A very good visual experience compared to before.

Lastly, at the bottom of the menu view, you will find your notifications, just tap to view them all. Next to the notifications is the search. I used the search to look for posts about Instagram. It worked fast, and presents a scrolling list of search results.

Reasons to be cheerful - Part 3..

1 - Alas, no dedicated iPad version yet. I await that arrival with anticipation, however, I am rubbing my hands with glee with this redesign of the iPhone version. The scrolling of posts is such fun!

2 - I am satisfied with the speed as well… for now.

3 - A pictorial delight compared to the web version. I do declare I have read more posts than I would normally have done!

Have you installed the redesigned version yet? Are you impressed or still not bothered? Hmm, off to play with the vertical scroll some more..

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About The Author:
Clive Roach is the social media strategist for Philips Healthcare. He is active with strategy development, activation, governance, projects and educational training activities for all aspects of social media within Philips Healthcare. Clive has been working in the eMarketing area since 1997, and previously held roles in engineering, design and sales. Clive is also practical in addition to his current strategic role. In addition to this blog, he tweets daily on three Twitter accounts, has two Facebook fan pages, Google+, Pinterest, So.cl, Instagram, and participates in many other social networks.
Connect with the author via: Twitter | Google+ | LinkedIn | So.cl

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