Jul 1, 2011 14:52 GMT  ·  By

Google's limited launch of its social web project Google+ has captured all of the attention and it looks like all of the company is behind it, not the least because all of its products are getting a Google+ inspired redesign.

One interesting thing in all of this is the fact that Google+ is not the only social project Google is working on.

A few people at the company are drudging away at, it turns out, at least two social apps in some of the hottest fields of the moment, group messaging and now photo-sharing.

The group-messaging app, Disco, has been around for a few months now and it's fairly comprehensive. In fact, it was quite surprising that Google rolled out a different group-messaging app, Huddle, with Google+.

Now, it turns out that the Slide team, which Google got when it acquired the company, was also working on a photo-sharing app, dubbed Pool Party, which is in private mode right now.

The app is already available in the Android Market and the App Store, but you'll need an account for it and you can't have one without an invitation. And those invitations are likely a lot harder to come by than Google+ ones.

"Pool Party is a simple, free photo sharing app. Create group albums and see your friends' photos as they happen in real-time," the app's description in the Android Market reads.

"Pool Party is invite-only at the moment. If you haven't already been invited to Pool Party by a friend, you can visit our website (poolpartyapp.com) to request an invitation," it adds.

The fact that these two apps exist, completely separate from Google+, indicate that the company is serious about the concept of independent teams inside Google.

These teams have autonomy to work on whatever they want and Slide is working on social apps. Still, neither Disco nor Pool Party have gotten any marketing from Google and it's unclear whether and when this changes. [via TechCrunch]