Google’s Vic Gundotra flew to Baltimore yesterday and happily shared a photo he took during his flight on Google+. Nothing special there, but what’s interesting is that he sent the photo to Google+ using Snapseed, the – until now – iOS-only, photo-sharing app and Instagram competitor that Google acquired last month when it bought Nik Software.
The good folks behind the #googleplusupdate Google+ account first spotted this update yesterday afternoon.
It was never a secret that Nik Software was already working on an Android app when it was acquired by Google. The fact that Gundotra is already using the app publicly, though, hints that it will likely launch in the near future. Also, judging from the fact that it can share directly to Google+, the app will likely have the tight integration with Google’s social network that most of us expected to see when the acquisition was first announced.
When Google acquired Nik Software, many pundits assumed that it did so as a reaction to Facebook’s Instagram acquisition. After the acquisition closed, Gundotra wrote that Google wanted to help its users “create photos they absolutely love, and in our experience Nik does this better than anyone.” A few days later, he also stressed that Google would continue offering Nik’s “high-end tools and plug-ins.”