San Francisco — In its relentless push to bulk up its social network, earlier this week rolled out Google+ Hangouts On Air now available the world over, and today there is another advancement being delivered to its users, Google+ is getting more tightly integrated into Gmail, meaning that users can get more of the social networking experience inside the notification emails they receive from the service.
In fact, these modifications have already begun rolling out gradually, and will continue to be implemented for Google+ users during the week. Further, the announcement published on the Official Gmail Blog, where Zohair Hyder, a Google software engineer, explained the tighter Gmail integration with Google+.
Besides, the image below illustrates how Google+ email notifications will now look for users of Gmail. The latest update lets you stay in the Gmail environment when replying to Google+ notifications. The change now allows you to view, comment and “+1” posts to your heart’s content directly from within Gmail, activity that will all seamlessly appear in your Google+ stream in real-time.
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An example of how Google+ notifications will now appear in Gmail. (Credit: Google) Click to enlarge…
Even if a Google+ users who do not actively use Gmail can still reply to a Google+ email notification, as seen in the image above. The reply will be immediately posted to Google+.
“We are gradually rolling out all of these features over the next week to users who have upgraded to Google+,” explained Hyder in the official Gmail blog. He also went on to say that users can adjust which notification emails they wish to receive in Gmail simply by amending their Google+ settings.
These features seem pretty cool, if a bit unnecessary. The ‘notification experience’ involves an assortment of changes that makes Gmail ‘completely interactive’ with the social network. Any user who is logged into Gmail will have Google+ notifications at the top of the page, and can reply there.
“Notification e-mails are a great way to keep up with what is happening in the Google+ stream: whether someone mentions you, comments on your post, or shares with you directly,” Hyder wrote in a blog post. “It is not always enough to just read these updates, however; sometimes you want to respond right away, right from your in-box.”
Hence, with the update, a user that receives a Google+ notification email in Gmail can engage with the content just as he or she would if they were on the site. So, if someone comment on one of your posts, you can effortlessly view the thread from the notification email, add your comments, dole out +1s, and watch as other responses populate in real-time–without ever leaving the email in question.
As for mobile Gmail users with a Google+ account, the email notifications will allow you to respond by clicking a “Reply to this email” prompt, a tool that could end up serving the same function as Twitter for some users. The email replies could benefit some feature phone users or those smartphone users who have an email app on their mobile devices, but not a Google+ app.
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Click to enlarge…
“We are always exploring new ways to create a simpler, more intuitive experience for our users, and with today’s changes, we are excited to make another advancement in this important direction,” Hyder said of Tuesday’s announcement.
While some may welcome these new rich features, others may well lament a perceived impossibility of escaping Google+. Just last week, the Web giant announced that Google+ comments will be posted alongside Google News articles, and earlier in the week, actor and writer Wil Wheaton ranted about having to sign into Google+ to like a video on YouTube.