Google Apps set for a communication upgrade with deeper Google+ integration

There may not be any new hardware announced at Google I/O, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be any surprises. Multiple sources have told us that Google is going to bring Google+ into Google Apps as a back-end communications system, allowing you to talk to co-workers while simultaneously working on a document.

Sources say that as cloud-base collaboration is becoming more and more important, Google is looking to introduce Google Circles and other concepts like Google Hangouts to its Apps users. You can already use Google+ within Google Apps for Business as a collaboration and sharing tool, but it doesn’t extend into the apps themselves.

We are told that Google Talk would give way to a new kind of a “unified messaging” product where focus is less on voice and more on data and video. More details will arrive later: make sure and check out our live blog here for the official news when it arrives.

These new Google+ social features are a good way to help reinvent the enterprise apps. The company has already been making some changes Like checking for sharing permissions for a Google docs when you email a link to people), but we will see something bigger in a few hours.

A good application of Google+ would mean company wide circles which would in turn allow easy communication and sharing of docs. This would put them in competition with Yammer, HipChat and other such products.