A fresh looking mobile app has been unveiled and is available to users across the globe. This is the same app that had been previously showcased by John Weiner, LinkedIn’s Chief Executive Officer, back in November.
It has taken LinkedIn at least six months to have the app working, but now the app has finally hit Apple’s App Store as well as Google Play Store. The new design features five tabs on the screen, a move seen as an attempt to decongest the previous version’s features to make it easier to use the app.
Included in the redesigned app is a private messaging feature that is meant to bring a messaging feel as opposed to the current messaging tool InMail. Social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as well as Snapchat have had the private messaging feature for long. Weiner admits that it took them a little long to have the feature in place, but the feature is now fully functional.
The Me feature allows users to view all the activities around their profiles including who visited their profile, what happened to the latest post and who endorsed them among other things. Weiner says the Me feature gives users an opportunity to manage their personal brand and their reputation around the world.
The Home Feed allows users to do more than just making connections. As a user goes through the onboarding process, they are prompted to choose particular topics, subjects and influencers they want to know more about. The Feed does not give you notifications such as who has joined which group, anniversaries and birthday. In other words, the Home Feed gives users news they care about from app development to venture capital, artificial capital and anything in between.
The My Network tab allows users to view the latest changes to their connections displayed in a card form. The user can swipe left to dismiss the card or take active sending congratulatory messages.
The ever-present search bar in the older version is now in dedicated to the Search section with the new app. While the functionality of the feature remains the same, there as big technology updates behind it. The process of querying is much faster and smarter according to Kiran Prasad, LinkedIn’s Vice President of Engineering. The feature also takes into the account the people you have been meeting with and when you last met them to give you more relevant results. Users can also search for companies, stocks and jobs by symbols.