Google+ recently launched its Stories and Movies features, enabling users to produce digital travelogues of vacations or escapades at home.
Stories automatically picks users' photos and videos and puts them all together into one travelogue. The new feature chooses photo and video highlights from consumers' recent trips, then adds hotel, restaurant and airport locations, plus maps, to the travel stories. Stories and Movies are also smart enough not to pick blurred images or duplicates, and will even notify users 24 hours after returning from a vacation that a Stories or Movies package is ready.
Movies, in turn, will make a highlight reel comprised of videos and photos. It will automatically pick effects, transitions and even a soundtrack.
All the stories and movies will be set to private by default, so users can customize the travelogues after creation. Captions, names, locations, cover photos, and titles among other things, can all be changed. After the stories and movies are finalized, users can choose to make the travelogues public or available to their own Google+ Circles. They can also share them with others outside of Google+.
In a post on the official Google blog, Director of Product Management Anil Sabharwal said, "No more sifting through photos for your best shots, racking your brain for the sights you saw, or letting your videos collect virtual dust. We'll just gift you a story after you get home. This way you can relive your favorite moments, share them with others, and remember why you traveled in the first place."
The Stories and Movies features are now available on Google+, right under the Photos tab. Users only have to click More on the navigation bar, then choose Stories from the dropdown menu to be able to see the travelogues. The new features will also be available on the Android app this week, and will be coming to the iOS app soon.
