Today, Google announced a new update to the Google+ app that will be rolling out later today that brings a host of new features. For starters, the posts have been redesigned to look a little cleaner, provide more content up front, and are easier to interact with. For example, you can now swipe between photos in an album, and tapping content should take you directly to where you want to go. The current Google+ app has a problem with requiring the user to jump through several hoops to get to the meat of a post, so hopefully this makes things easier.

There's also a new feature being added to your profile that will allow you to add a permanent monitor for your location that's visible to select circles. Reminiscent of Latitude (which Ron predicted would start moving over to Google+), this will automatically display where you currently are to anyone who visits your profile, so long as you've given them permission to see this information. It will only be as accurate as your phone's location data allows, so if you have GPS disabled, it may not be terribly helpful. It's a little unclear how this is more useful than simply sharing where you are only when you check-in somewhere interesting, but the option is yours.

Finally, Google is adding a host of features to Communities on mobile, including the ability to adjust how much content you see from them in your stream, invite new users, search members, and—if you run a Community—to moderate content and bring down the banhammer.

The update is not live yet on the Play Store (we'll update when it is), but you can take read more about it from Google below.

Update: It's now live on the Play Store! Hit the widget or your device to get it. Gogogo!

What's in this version:

- New stream design (including comment previews and swiping through photo albums inline)

- Control the volume of posts that you see in your stream from individual circles/communities

- New app setup flow

- Filter search results by best or most recent

- Tell others about a community (by sharing it or sending an invitation)

- Re-share posts to communities

- Share your current location on your profile and control who can see it via G+ settings

Source: Google