Within a few days of launching Google+, search engine giant Google has submitted a Google+ App to the Apple App Store and is awaiting approval, said a Venture Beat post on Monday. Google+ is the company’s new social network platform, launched at the end of June.
In her Google + post, Google technician Erica Joy clarified that the app was submitted to Apple ‘sometime prior to today’. Hence, given Apple’s standard approval process, users could see an app as soon as this week.
Google has a mobile version of Google+ that runs pretty well on the iPhone (and is accessible by other smartphone browsers). But, a genuine iPhone app would undoubtedly be faster and offer more features (like notification messages), that would give iPhone users a similar experience to the existing Google+ Android app.
A Cnet post says “Google launched Google+ with an Android app and a Web interface. The Android app is geared for small devices, though–it’s workable but awkwardly stretched on my Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. Apple’s iOS devices, though, are very popular, particularly among the digital in-crowd that has managed to get access to Google+ during its restricted initial beta period.”
Google also has said it will offer a Google API (application programming interface), a move that would make it possible for other programmers to build Google+ apps. An API lets software, not just people, interact with a service, so programmers can create a new interface for a service or potentially build broader services on top of it.
Joy also noted that she wasn’t sure if the app would also be optimized for the iPad (and that her iPad is “sitting on its dock collecting dust”). It makes more sense for Google to get an iPhone-specific app out first, as there are plenty more iPhones out there than iPads. Google can always update the app later to include full iPad support.
Google+ still isn’t open to everyone yet – you need an invite to use the service, and Google has made it clear that it’s still in beta testing. After launching last week, Google+ has generated a surprising amount of buzz for a social service coming out of the search giant. When Google+ invites were first opened up last week, the company had to put a squash to them due to “insane demand.” That’s certainly a good sign for Google, and it already seems clear that Plus will avoid the fate of Buzz and Wave.
Electronista posted, “Google’s plan to launch so soon could lead it to ironically overtake Facebook. Although Google chairman Eric Schmidt has admitted that his company has been slow to latch on to social networks, it could have an iPad-native app before the Facebook equivalent. Both are known to be in the works, but the Facebook app isn’t thought to have reached the approval stage and could be weeks or more away.