Google Plus Finally Available to Google Apps Users

By Allison Summers, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, October 27, 2011

Google Product Manager Robert Ho announced today on the official company blog that Google+ has finally become available to Google Apps users.

"Starting now you can manually turn on Google+ for your organization," he wrote. "Once Google+ is turned on, your users will just need to sign up at google.com/+ to get started. For customers who use Google Apps for Business or the free version of Google Apps and who have chosen to automatically enable new services, Google+ will automatically become available to all of your users over the next several days."

All features of Google+ are now available to Google Apps users, one of which include social circle rings that allow users to group their friends according to what they are willing to share. Through this feature, individuals no longer have to worry about sharing something with their friends that they may not want their collegues or work associates to see.

In addition, Google Apps users have access to video webchats called "hangouts" in which individuals can hold video conferences with up to nine other people, games, a search engine, instant messenger, and instant photo upload. They also now have the option of sharing with everyone in their organization, even if they have not yet added those people to a social circle.

"For those of you who’ve already started using Google+ with a personal Google Account and would prefer to use your Google Apps account, we’re building a migration tool to help you move over," Ho said.

"With this tool, you won’t have to rebuild your circles, and people who’ve already added you to their circles will automatically be connected to your new profile. We expect this migration option to be ready in a few weeks, so if you’d like, you can go ahead and get started with your Apps account today and merge your connections once the tool is available."