Google Plus iPhone App Approved--But Users Have Gripes (SCREENSHOTS)

The iPhone app for Google+, Google's new social network, has been approved by Apple and is now available for free download in the App Store.

So how does the app match-up to the Google+ experience online? What can (and can't) it do?

Overall, it's quite similar, though it's missing a few notable components, namely "Sparks," a simple news reader for user-defined areas of interest, "Hangouts," a one-on-one or group video chat service, and the ability to post new content to your Google+ profile.

However, the core of the social network seems to be in the app, including Circles and an easily accessible Stream featuring updates from the people a user has put into her Circles.

Huddles, Google+'s group messaging feature is interesting as well, as the chat function could replace SMS to some extent, allowing users to start conversations with both individuals and groups via text. You can learn more about Huddles here, on Google's official page.

The reviews however, have been mixed. The app has received 573 ratings on the App Store thus far, with 272 reviewers giving the app the highest rating (five stars) and 126 reviewers offering just one star.

Television star and social media celebrity Alyssa Milano complained that the app "crashed twice in the 10 minutes I've been on it," a sentiment shared by many early downloaders. However, the app was quickly updated in the iTunes store to address some concerns.

Google Mobile's Lead Product Manager, Punit Soni, addressed some of the issues in a post on Google+ just before the update.

For example, he noted in response to complaints that the app was repeatedly crashing, "This may be related to the lack of IOS5 support. We are digging deep into other crash reports as we speak." According to Soni, iOS 5 is "unsupported at this point," with device support for iPhones and iPads "coming soon."

However, one issue that was barely addressed was the inability to share posts that appear in your stream. Soni stated that it's a feature they're working on addressing, and that it should be coming soon. Users do currently have the ability to +1 a post via the app.

Users using iOS5 developer demos have also reported crashes, and Google engineers are currently investigating the crash reports.

See screenshots of the app below, then let us know what you think of it (you can download it from Apple's App Store here). Check out our guide to Google+, as well as our list of people to follow on Google+.

The Homescreen:

The Stream:

Circles:

Comments

[theleader 4u]

03:30 AM on 08/30/2011

too good piece of information, I had come to know about your site from my friend sajid, bangalore,i have read atleast 11 posts of yours by now, and let me tell you, your web-page gives the best and the most interesting information. This is just the kind of information that i had been looking for, i'm already your rss reader now and i would regularly watch out for the new post, once again hats off to you! Thanks a lot once again, Regards, google plus login

[Patrick Desmond]

04:50 PM on 07/21/2011

Where's the support for the iPod Touch? Don't hate just because my device is slightly less capable of making phone calls than an iPhone!

[incrednet]

11:06 PM on 07/20/2011

What's with the huge screenshots? It's an exact carbon copy of the already existing Android G+ app, which has been out for awhile. No surprise Apple's OS doesn't play nice haha.

[Grant Deters]

09:54 AM on 07/20/2011

I read through a few of the reviews that were negative and it was mostly do to IOS5 Support; who the hell cares, the OS isn't even out yet and your bashing the App just because it doesn't work with a Beta OS? Stupid...

[mjredder]

08:19 AM on 07/20/2011

So wait, we're supposed to be shocked somehow that Google, one of Apple's major competitors, gave Apple a program to approve, and the approved version somehow doesn't work well on the Apple platform? Hmm, yeah, absolutely nothing suspicious going on there.

[ThaGovna]

05:52 PM on 07/19/2011

Was it mentioned that Apple had users downloading the buggy test version rather than the current version for over an hour after it's release in the app store? If so, I didn't see it. Pfft.

[CaptainObvvious]

04:34 PM on 07/19/2011

Let's celebrate that in one swoop it worked on every single iOS device... Compared to some notable apps like Netflix that still only work on a handful of Android devices.

[oomatter]

05:17 PM on 07/19/2011

Except that according to the article it doesn't.

[CaptainObvvious]

06:06 PM on 07/19/2011

According to the article it is having trouble with an unreleased beta version of an OS.

When that OS is released and probably before it will support the app.

[MaxPowerXP]

07:04 PM on 07/19/2011

Have any more apples/oranges comparisons you'd like to make?

[clausnitzer]

04:28 PM on 07/19/2011

They may have gotten some things wrong, but they got one VERY right:
The advent of circles more closely resembles the real life human interpersonal communication. How? By not letting people know what circles they are in. There was a great article on hubski.com about this. Rather than re-hatch it here, I'll provide the link below. It's a great point though and worth a quick read:
http://hubski.com/pub?id=2226