Email notifications from Google+ have received an exciting update that adds more social functionality to the normally stale alerts.

The Gmail team has announced that these notifications are now fully functional, which means you’ll be able to interact with content you’re sent directly from your inbox.

In addition to adding people to Circles and keeping up with Google+ content, you’re now able to view, comment on, and +1 posts from your inbox. Your comments will appear in the Google+ stream in real-time, and responses from others will instantly appear in Gmail.

Google has also made it so you can reply to notifications directly from your mobile device. “Just open the notification email about the post you’re interested in, and look for the new prompt, “Reply to this email,” Google explained in today’s blog post. “Tap reply, send your comment, and we’ll automatically add it to the ongoing Google+ conversation.”

This update prompts you to be social without requiring you to leave your inbox. If you turned off email notifications from Google+, you might want to consider turning them back on. Google will be rolling out this feature over the next week.

[Image credit: Robert Llefi]