ReadWriteWeb’s Friday afternoon news team confirms that the Google Plus app for iPhone has been updated to incorporate this week’s new mobile features. The messaging service formerly known as Huddle has been renamed Messenger, and iPhone users now have the ability to join video Hangouts in progress.
The update also adds some basic functionality, including the ability to +1 comments within threads and post directly to individuals instead of whole circles. It also provides more granular control over push notifications. Google’s social network left its “field test” phase and opened to the public this week. More from the news team, including images of Marshall Kirkpatrick blogging in the nude, after the jump.
ReadWriteWeb’s Jon Mitchell (clothed), on Hangout with Marshall Kirkpatrick (nude)
Both of our test pilots were on reasonably fast Wi-Fi, and the service still suffered from some lag, even though there were only two people on the Hangout. It cleared up, though, and Mitchell and Kirkpatrick were able to carry out a somewhat awkward and improperly dressed conversation. The interface is better suited to landscape mode than portrait; it fills up the screen, and the image of oneself can be dragged around the screen at will. The user can also flip to the main camera.
It’s neat that mobile users can now join existing Hangouts, but they can’t create new ones. It’s also hard to imagine that existing mobile devices will be able to handle multi-user Hangouts, but it’s still very early for the Google Plus platform, and clearly these features are being built with future uses in mind. We’re not in the age of mobile video calling yet, but we’re getting there. Maybe by the time the iPhone 7G comes out in December.
