Google+ now gives you more control over your notifications when someone shares content with you, you're notified about a post, you're mentioned, you're invited to a hangout, you're invited to play a game, or you receive an update from a game.
Google+ is continuing its tradition of responding quickly and precisely to user requests. This time it’s through advanced notification controls that let you choose which users trigger notifications.
Googler Kathleen Ko announced the feature, saying, “[T]oday we’re rolling out a new option in Google+ settings: ‘Who can notify you.’ […] This setting controls who you’ll get notifications from.”
More specifically, you will now have control over who you receive notifications from when content is shared with you, you are notified about a post, you are mentioned, you are invited to a hangout, you’re invited to play a game, or you are sent a notification or update from a game. The major exception is that you’ll “still be notified if someone comments on one of your posts or adds you to a circle,” according to Ko’s post.
By default, you will get notifications from anyone in your extended circles. However, you can alter it to enable or prevent a given circle or individual from triggering notifications.
The new feature was unveiled on October 7 and has been rolling out ever since. Some Google users may not see the additional controls as of this moment, but the new settings will expand universally in the coming days.
As mentioned by The Next Web, “most of the feature rollouts I’ve been seeing lately have been based on the demands of its community.” This gives Google leverage: They are both establishing a social network based on open sharing and branding themselves as the social network that listens.
When you compare this with the average amount of whining and fruitless demands for change every time Facebook alters anything, it’s clear that Google+’s current person could serve as a very real advantage.