Google+ is officially dead now

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Rebranding as Google Currents sees failed social media network finally bite the dust

Google+ for G Suite
(Image credit: Google)

Google+ has officially bid its last farewell after being finally killed off.

The doomed social media network has been in limbo since Google announced its closure last year, but has now officially been re-branded as the company launches an entirely new service.

From today, Google+ is known as Google Currents, which is available to download now on both iOS and Android.

Google Currents

Google Currents looks to explicitly target enterprise users, taking on the likes of Slack and Microsoft Teams by allowing users within an organisation to stay in touch and collaborate online.

Currents appears to keep the "tags" and "streams" theme of Google+, with users able to keep up to date with project work, emails, messages and alerts, as well as share text, links, images and other content from Google Drive.

(Image credit: Google)

Google says the service allows better collaboration and debate without flooding your inbox, as well as keeping tabs on the content that really matters to you. All existing plus.google.com URLs will be redirected to currents.google.com equivalents, meaning previous files and profile information should remain present.

Google+ closed in April 2019 following a serious data breach the previous year which saw the personal information of 500,000 users was exposed. Google had kept the service running for businesses that relied on it to communicate with their employees, but these customers will now be migrated over to Currents.

Google+ launched in 2011 as a way for the company to compete against the likes of Facebook and Twitter in the booming social media landscape. The platform was initially invite-only before being opened up to the public later that year.

Google's social network had many of the same features as its rivals including the ability to post photos and status updates on individual feeds. However, users failed to embrace its “Circles” concept as well as its “Plus One” button.

Via 9to5Google

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Mike Moore
Mike Moore
Deputy Editor, TechRadar Pro

Mike Moore is Deputy Editor at TechRadar Pro. He has worked as a B2B and B2C tech journalist for nearly a decade, including at one of the UK's leading national newspapers and fellow Future title ITProPortal, and when he's not keeping track of all the latest enterprise and workplace trends, can most likely be found watching, following or taking part in some kind of sport.