Google+ for Android gets rebuilt for the few that still use it

Remember Google+? The search giant's take on a social network, complete with 'Circles' for organising contacts and 'Communities' for connecting with like-minded people? Well the site is still up and running, even if its active user base remains low. If you're a holdout, however, good news — Google is working on a "brand new" version of the Google+ app for Android devices. Though it "closely resembles" the current app, the underlying rewrite means the team should be able to build new features "on a modern tech stack." That's according to Leo Deegan, anyway, an engineering manager for the Google+ team, who explained the changes in a public post.

The update will roll out "over the next several days" and includes some subtle tweaks, such as improved scrolling, a redesigned lightbox and a new animation for comment options. If all of that sounds tame to you ... that's because it is. But maybe, just maybe, this is a precursor to some larger, more meaningful changes. It's unlikely that Google+ will ever rise up and match Twitter and Facebook's influence. But if Google can carve out a corner of the internet that's free from spam, harassment and everything else that plagues other social networks — while maintaining a half-modern design and feature set — that's something we should all be interested in.