Google Spaces gives users another new way to share and discuss their favorite content

So much of our mobile experience is driven by the sharing and consumption of content, whether we're emailing articles to friends, sharing links to videos on social media, on chatting about all this online. And while no one's denying that there's not a million different ways to do this already, Google thinks it can come up with something just a little bit better: an app that's built around the idea of sharing, and one that makes it easy to start discussions around our favorite topics. To that end, the company's introducing its new Spaces app, launching for Android, iOS, and the web.

Spaces sounds a bit like a spin-off of Google+ and its circles, because the core mechanic of Spaces is similarly based around the formation of these small groups of users. Here, though, there's no fancy social network to join; users are instead invited through existing communication channels, where they're asked by friends, family, or co-workers to participate in focused discussions about specific shared content.

You can throw together a space to discuss the latest article you've read, a hot new movie trailer from YouTube, or pretty much whatever your heart desires. The Spaces app integrates both YouTube content and a standard Google search feature to make it easy for users to pull up new stuff for their space-mates to talk about, and that search mode extends to crawling your Spaces history if you're interested in bringing back up older conversations.

With Google I/O taking place this week, it's interesting to see Google launch a new app like Spaces in advance of the conference, but Google doesn't sound at all interested in holding this one back any longer. If anything, the company looks interested in using I/O as a Spaces proving ground of sorts, and will be creating unique spaces for all the gathering's upcoming sessions.

Spaces should be going live for Android, iOS, and web-based users a little later on today.


source: Google