Geek's Advice

Google+ for consumers shuts down in April

In April 2018, Google announced plans to shut down its not-so-successful clone of Facebook, Google Plus. The idea of creating the social network’s rival didn’t go through a reality check. On January 30th, 2019, Google published an announcement stating that Google+ for consumers will officially shut down on April 2nd, 2019. The official statement informs that the shut-down was planned due to low user interest in the service and challenges in attempts to create a product that fulfills users’ needs. However, one of the reasons could have been the data-exposing bug, which was patched in March.

If you are a Google+ user, we encourage you to acknowledge yourself with changes that will be caused by the Google+ shut-down for consumers.

• Starting on February 4th, the possibility to create new profiles, pages, communities or events using Google+ will be discontinued.
• Consumers will no longer be able to sign in to sites and third-party apps using Google+ sign in button. Sign-ins using Google accounts will be possible.
• If you used Google+ to comment on various websites, you should know that Blogger will no longer support this feature. Every comment made via Google+ will be deleted on April 2, 2019.
• If you are a developer, you should know that Google+ APIs will start shutting down starting January 28, 2019, and the final deadline for this shut-down is March 7, 2019.

All Google+ consumer data will be deleted

Google will not be saving your Google+ content. In fact, it will begin deleting it soon. It means that photos and videos in Album Archive, as well as Google Plus pages, will be erased. Therefore, it is recommended to download and save content you shared using on this soon-to-be-dead platform. Make sure you do this before April 2nd.

Some content may not be deleted, but only if needed in order to meet applicable laws, regulations, and other legal processes.

All other Google services will continue functioning and won’t be impacted by the shutdown of the Plus service. G Suite users won’t be affected by the shutdown. The accounts will remain active, and, in fact, users can expect new G suite design and new features very soon.

How to download and save Google+ data

In order to save content you published via the described platform, we prepared a guide on how to download and save it before Google starts deleting it in April.

1. First of all, go to Download your data webpage. You should sign-in if you haven’t already. Here, you will see a list of preselected Google+ data.
2. Click Next and choose the file type you want your content to be delivered in, and how you want it to be delivered.
3. Now, hit Create Archive button.

In case you want to download specific data, press the arrow next to content you want to download and choose Select specific data option. Then just select what type of data you want to download and follow further instructions as described earlier.

More Google products about to bite the dust

Google has laid many of its products in its graveyard, and it seems that it is not the end. Google+ isn’t the only product which is about to die in 2019. The company also announced plans to kill its smart messaging app Allo in March 2019. According to Matt Klainer for ZDNet, Google CP of Consumer Communications Product, Google “decided to stop supporting Allo to focus on Messages.”

Another product to shut down this year is Goo.gl URL shortening service. Its death date is set to March 30, 2019. However, existing links will continue redirecting users to the right web locations.

Norbert Webb

Norbert Webb is the head of Geek’s Advice team. He is the chief editor of the website who controls the quality of content published. The man also loves reading cybersecurity news, testing new software and sharing his insights on them. Norbert says that following his passion for information technology was one of the best decisions he has ever made. “I don’t feel like working while I’m doing something I love.” However, the geek has other interests, such as snowboarding and traveling.