Google__ The Missing Manual - Kevin Purdy [45]
However, you don’t have to share your photos the moment you post them. If you just wanted to upload these photos to Google+ for safekeeping or you decide you’d rather share them later, simply hit Cancel in the “Share album” box. Your photos still get uploaded to Google+ so they’re available to you there, but no one is notified that you posted them.
Uploading as post attachments
You don’t have to upload batches of photos to Google+ before you share them. You can simply upload individual photos, or even albums, on the fly as you write a post. Simply start a new post (Writing a Google+ Post) and then click the camera icon to see options for uploading photos or albums:
Add photos lets you select a few photos for showing off.
Create album lets you quickly make and name a new album and upload photos for it by dragging-and-dropping or choosing image files.
From your phone (Android only) brings up a pop-up box that shows the most recent photos from your Android phone, if you have Instant Upload turned on (see Uploading photos automatically from an Android phone or tablet).
If you have an Android phone with the Google+ app installed and the Instant Upload feature turned on, you’ll see tiny thumbnails of your most recently uploaded photo right there next to the camera icon, as shown here. Click a thumbnail to select it, and then click more images to select them as well. Once you’ve selected all the photos you want to attach, click the “Add photos to post” button in the lower-right corner of the pop-up box. You can’t get a larger look at these photos from this screen, unfortunately, but you can head to your Photos page, select photos in the “From your phone” gallery, and then click Share if you’d like to make sure you’re posting the right images.
Uploading from Your Phone
The best camera, the saying goes, is the one you have with you. These days, people carry cellphones with surprisingly decent (and in some cases really good) cameras everywhere they go, occasionally snapping pictures of sunsets, cute dogs, delicious meals, and the people they care about. If you have an Android phone, posting photos to Google+ is incredibly simple (even automatic), yet secure. If you have an iPhone, Windows Phone 7, BlackBerry, or any other cell-phone that can go online, you can get your snapshots into Google+ with only a modicum more fuss.
NOTE
To learn how to install the Google+ app on your phone, flip to Getting Google+ onto Your Phone. This section focuses exclusively on how to use the app to upload photos, but Chapter 8 explains more about using Google+ on a web-connected phone.
Uploading from an Android phone
If you have an Android cellphone and you’ve installed the official Google+ app on it, you’re always just one snap and two clicks away from shooting and sharing a photo—and sometimes just one click.
After you’ve installed the Google+ app, agreed to the app’s terms of service, and confirmed the Google account you’re using with Google+ (see Chapter 8 for details on all these steps), your phone considers Google+ a source for items you want to share, including photos. Go into your phone’s Gallery app (sometimes called Photos) and open a photo or select a whole bunch of them.
Tap the Share button at the bottom of the screen. (If you don’t see a Share option, you might have to tap the More button first, press the Menu button on the phone itself, or tap and hold the photo to bring up the Share option.) The list of sharing options that appears should include Google+.
Tap the Google+ menu item to display the screen shown here. Just like when you share anything else on the Google+ web-site, you