Google+ released two promising new updates this week: Stories and Movies.
Stories:
Users’ photos and videos automatically combine to create a slick timeline of your travels. Google’s Director of Product Management, +Anil Sabharwal describes Stories like this:
No more sifting through photos for your best shots, racking your brain for the sights you saw, or letting your videos collect virtual dust. We’ll just gift you a story after you get home. This way you can relive your favorite moments, share them with others, and remember why you traveled in the first place.
Not all Stories are created equal… I found some hilariously bad stories filled with pictures of my latest manicure and crazy selfies of my kids. Sometimes you get lucky, which I did on my newly discovered auto Story from England…
Movies:
Remember those cool, end-of-the-year videos that showed up in your Google+ gallery? Movies will now pull those highlight reels together for your personal events. From +Anil’s blog post…
When it’s less about travel, and more about today’s events (like a birthday party, or baby’s first steps), Google+ Movies can produce a highlight reel of your photos and videos automatically—including effects, transitions and a soundtrack.
To get started with Stories and Movies, simply back up your photos and videos to Google+. Auto Awesome will get to work in the background. Google says you’ll be notified when a story or movie is ready, but I’ve yet to see a notification. You can check the Stories tab in your Photo Gallery on your G+ page to see what you probably already have waiting for you.
