Google Plus adds ‘collections’ to keep things tidy, move towards being like Pinterest

New feature lets users keep topics together, and was announced on Google Plus itself

Google Plus has added new “collections” tools, allowing users to keep similar things together as part of an ongoing shake-up of the often neglected service.

Collections allow users to stick posts on certain topics together, under a shared title and picture. That system allows users to then share those collections , publicly, privately or with a custom group of people. Or you can subscribe to others’ collections, which means that they will appear in the home screen with live updates.

“Every collection is a focused set of posts on a particular topic, providing an easy way for you to organize all the things you’re into,” wrote Dmitry Shapiro, a product manager at Google, in a post announcing the change written on Google Plus. “Collections give you a great way to find more of the stuff you love from the people you follow.”

The update is available already for the web and Android versions of Google Plus. iOS support is “coming later”, Google said, and Android support must be enabled by downloading the latest version of the app.

Google appears to have already been testing the feature for some users, so there are existing collections already available despite the feature only just going live. The site highlights some of those in a special area for featured collections.

Google has been overhauling its social network, moving it instead to focus on two different products known as Streams and Photos. It’s unclear the degree to which Google is looking to kill off the Plus product as it is known, though the company seems to still be updating the social networks parts of the app.