Earlier today, Google started rolling out a major update to Google+ for Android. Together with our readers, we've examined every corner of the app and found a whole bunch of things that are new to this version 4.2 but haven't been mentioned in the official announcement. You should definitely read through the list if you haven't yet.

However, one new feature that I found fascinating managed to fly completely below the radar because it's located not within the app itself but rather in the widget menu. That feature is a brand new widget called User Locations.

As you have probably guessed from its name, User Locations shows you your contacts' locations. Add an instance of this widget, select the Google+ account and contact you're interested in (this contact has to have G+ location sharing enabled), and voila - the location is displayed right on an appropriately zoomed in map tile, along with the alternating update time and city information.

I'm not sure how frequently the widgets are updated, if at all, but if you want to force a refresh, a convenient Refresh button can be found at the top right corner.

Update: If you add a Google+ circle instead of a contact, you get a stack of cards you can cycle through:

Pretty sweet, isn't it?

[EMBED_APP]https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.plus[/EMBED_APP]

Thanks,  +Luuk Meulendijks!