Connecting to Google+
The Google+ social networking website is the fifth most popular such website in the world, with an estimated 120 million monthly visitors as of March 2015 (www.ebizmba.com/articles/social-networking-websites). It might come as no surprise that Google is pushing its social networking service by preinstalling its Google+ apps on the Android operating system, and the same is true for Lollipop on the Galaxy Tab A.
Set Up Google+
Before you connect to Google+, you have to set it up to work on your Tab A.
1. Tap the Google icon on the Home screen.
2. Tap Google+ in the Google window.
3. When you start the Google+ app, it logs you in automatically using your Google account name and password. If you have more than one Google+ account, the Choose Account screen appears. Simply tap the button to the right of the account name with which you want to log in and then tap Next (not shown).
4. In the Follow Things You Love screen, Google+ groups communities you can follow into different categories such as TV shows and Sports. Swipe up and down to view all the categories. If you want to follow all communities in the category, tap the Follow All button within the category tile.
5. Tap Next.
6. In the News Feed page, tap the Menu icon.
7. Tap Settings.
What If I Don’t Have a Google+ Account?
This book doesn’t discuss creating a new Google+ account. You can learn more about the different types of accounts you can create and how to create an account by visiting the Google+ website at https://plus.google.com.
8. Tap Auto Backup to automatically back up photos and videos in your Google+ account to the Google Photos app. Only you can view backed-up photos and videos in Google Photos. After you tap Auto Backup, the Auto Backup screen appears so you can turn Auto Backup on and change Auto Backup settings.
9. Tap Conserve Data Usage if you don’t want to view images at their full resolution in Google+. This is useful if you’re using a data carrier’s plan and don’t want to go over your monthly data usage limit.
10. Tap your account name to change your Google account settings.
11. Add a Google account by tapping Add Account.
12. Return to the news feed page by tapping the Back icon in the menu bar.
Use Google+
After you set up Google+, the main Google+ screen appears and the latest message from one of your Google+ friends appears at the top of the screen.
1. The red menu bar appears at the top of the screen so you can view Google+ pages associated with your account, find people in your Contacts list you can add as Google+ friends, see how many updates you have, and access the menu.
2. View new and recent notifications in the Notifications list by tapping the Notifications icon, which is the outline of a bell. The number of new notifications you have received, such as a new post in a group, appears next to the Notifications icon as a box on the right side of the screen with the number of new messages inside it. If there are no new messages, no box appears.
3. Return to the main Google+ screen by tapping outside the Notifications box; the Home bar indicates that you’re looking at an aggregated list of news updates from all your Google+ friends.
4. The latest updates appear as tiles on the screen. Swipe up and down the screen to read more updates. When you swipe down, the menu and Home bars disappear; when you swipe up, the menu and Home bars reappear at the top of the screen.
5. Tap the sender at the top of a tile to open the post on the screen.
6. Tap the Add a Comment field and use the keyboard to type your message to comment on the post.
7. Tap the Send icon.
8. Tap the Back icon in the menu bar to return to the Google+ home screen.
9. Tap the Home bar to open the Google+ menu that shows a variety of options for accessing different parts of Google+.
10. Tap the Search for People, Pages, and Posts field to type a search term. Google+ displays a results page that shows any Google+ friends, posts, and/or photo tags that meet your search criteria.
11. By default, you view posts from all of your “circles,” which are groups of your Google+ friends that you can modify. View members of only one circle—for example, only people in the Family category—by tapping Circles to see the menu of circle categories.
12. Tap the circle that contains users whose posts you want to view. After you tap the circle, the screen refreshes and displays the latest posts from Google+ users in that circle.
13. If you belong to a Google+ community, which is a group of users who have a common interest, you can view posts from Google+ users within a specific community by tapping Communities to see a list of communities you belong to.
14. Tap the community that contains users whose posts you want to view. After you tap the community, the screen refreshes and displays the latest posts from Google+ users in that community.
15. Tap Collections to view groups of message posts by topic, or you can create a collection and share that collection with your circles.
16. In the Explore section, you can tap a topic Google+ has identified as popular among your friends, see what else Google+ thinks are hot topics, and see what’s happening on Google+ in locations near you.
17. In the menu bar at the bottom of the screen, you can add a photo, location, or event to your new Google+ post.
18. Return to the Google+ home screen by tapping the Back touch button (not shown).
Write a Post
You can write a new post at any time to transmit to circles of friends that you want to receive the message.
1. Tap the red Write button in the lower-right corner on the Google+ home screen.
2. Tap the circle name, which in this example is Public, to specify one or more circles with which you will share your post. Otherwise, your message will be sent to all your circles as well as to everyone in the Public circle—that is, all Google+ users.
3. Tap the circle(s) that will view your post from the list. You can also swipe up and down the screen to tap a specific contact name in your Contacts list. This example uses the circles titled Your Circles and Extended Circles.
4. Tap the Public circle to remove it from your sender list.
5. Tap the Your Circles and Extended Circles icons. After you tap each icon, a blue circle that contains a white check mark appears in the upper-right corner of the circle icon, which means the group is selected.
6. The selected Your Circles and Extended Circles circle names appear in the To list.
7. Return to the Write Post screen by tapping the check mark icon in the menu bar.
8. The circles to which you will send the message appear below your name.
9. Tap Write Something in the Text field.
10. Type your message in the Text field.
11. Close the keyboard by tapping the Back touch button (not shown).
12. Tap the Add Your Location field if you want to share the location of your post with your viewers.
13. Select your location from the Pick a Place screen. If you want to use your current location, tap Select This Location. After you select your location, you might see a window reminding you how to delete your location. If you do, tap OK.
14. The location name you selected appears in the Write Post screen.
15. Tap the Camera icon to take a photo with your Tab A camera or select an existing photo on your device that will be added to the post.
16. Add a hyperlink to another website within your post by tapping the Hyperlink icon.
17. Tap the Survey icon to ask a question in your post and have respondents choose from two or more choices.
18. Tap the Menu icon to disable sharing of the message by other Google+ users and/or disable comments about your message from readers. You can also send feedback to Google about the app and get quick online help with using Google+.
19. Tap the Send icon when you’re finished writing your post. After a second or two, the Google+ home screen appears and your post appears as a tile on the screen.
