The end is finally in sight for Google’s ill-fated social media venture Google+.
The company announced this week that Google+ will officially shut down April 2, 2019 - after Google initially announced it would end the service back in fall.
On April 2nd, your Google+ account and any Google+ pages you created will be shut down and we will begin deleting content from consumer Google+ accounts. Photos and videos from Google+ in your Album Archive and your Google+ pages will also be deleted.
Google acknowledged the main reason it’s shutting the social arm down, noting its low usage in a blog post announcing the end date. That, coupled with the struggle to live up to expectations and security concerns, has made Google+ simply not worth keeping around.
Google did not directly address the security concerns in its post, but a security flaw left nearly 500,000 users data exposed to third-party app developers. After that was fixed, another issue was found, which led to an earlier shut down date in April. Now, Google has revealed its full timeline to wind down the service.
The change means all Google+ accounts and pages will be deleted. Anyone with photos or other content they’d like to save on their account should download and save those files prior to the shutdown. Photos and videos will be backed up to Google Photos. However, any other posts or content on Google+ pages will be gone.
As early as February 28th, you will no longer be able to create new Google+ profiles, pages, communities or events. See the full FAQ for more details and updates leading up to the shutdown.
If you’re a Google+ Community owner or moderator, you may download and save your data for your Google+ Community. Starting early March 2019, additional data will be available for download, including author, body, and photos for every community post in a public community.
If you sign in to sites and apps using the Google+ Sign-in button, these buttons will stop working in the coming weeks but in some cases may be replaced by a Google Sign-in button. You’ll still be able to sign in with your Google Account wherever you see Google Sign-in buttons.
If you’ve used Google+ for comments on your own or other sites, this feature will be removed from Blogger by February 4th and other sites by March 7th. All your Google+ comments on all sites will be deleted starting April 2, 2019.
If you’re a G Suite customer, Google+ for your G Suite account should remain active. Contact your G Suite administrator for more details. You can also expect a new look and new features soon.
If you're a developer using Google+ APIs or Google+ Sign-in, click here to see how this will impact you.
From all of us on the Google+ team, thank you for making Google+ such a special place. We are grateful for the talented group of artists, community builders, and thought leaders who made Google+ their home. It would not have been the same without your passion and dedication.
