If you’ve logged onto your Google+ account today, you may have noticed a little pop-up on the bottom right announcing a new feature.

The message reads “New! Chat with the people in your circles. You can now chat with the people in your circles (who also have you in their circles). Change which circles you can chat with by choosing Privacy Settings from the chat menu.”

This change means you no longer need a person’s email address to chat. You just need to have each other in your Circles.

Another significant change this brings, is the ability to chat even when you’re not using Google+. You can chat using Gmail, the Google Talk client, iGoogle, Orkut and 3rd party apps.

A Google spokesperson commented on the change saying, “We’re making it easier to chat with the people you care about.” They also said this is not a form of group chat and you can not start group chats from Circles.

So, what do you think about the Google+ chat change? Are you ready to start chatting with everyone in your Circles?