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Google+ was Google’s social network, but you cannot use it today. Google shut down the consumer service on April 2, 2019, deleted consumer Google+ content, and later retired its enterprise successor, Google Currents. If you are looking for a current Google social network, business community, or Google+ marketing strategy, you need a different service.
What was Google+?
Google+ (pronounced “Google Plus”) was a social-networking platform launched by Google in 2011. It was designed to compete with services such as Facebook and Twitter, allowing people to publish updates, share photos and links, follow others, and participate in discussions.
Google+ was a separate product from a Google Account. A Google Account could be used to access Gmail, YouTube, Drive, Photos, and other services, while Google+ provided the social profile and networking features. Closing Google+ did not close those other Google services.
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Google also experimented with using Google+ across its wider ecosystem, including identity, recommendations, comments, search-related features, and third-party integrations.
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How Google+ worked
Profiles and posts
Each user could create a Google+ profile and publish text updates, photos, links, and other media. Other users could follow the profile and interact with its posts.
Circles
Circles let users organize contacts into groups such as friends, family, coworkers, or acquaintances. When publishing a post, a user could select the intended audience instead of sharing everything with one undifferentiated friend list.
Circles were an audience-control feature, not a guarantee of confidentiality. A post could be public, reshared, captured in a screenshot, or exposed to a wider audience depending on its settings and other users’ actions.
Communities
Communities were topic-based discussion spaces. They were used for interests including photography, technology, professional subjects, hobbies, and fandoms. Consumer Google+ Communities were removed when the consumer service shut down; they are not available today.
Collections
Collections organized posts around topics or interests. They were introduced later in Google+’s development and are now only a historical feature.
Pages
Google+ Pages gave brands, organizations, and public figures a public-facing presence. The Pages themselves were removed with consumer Google+, although associated Google Brand Accounts could continue independently for use with other Google products, such as YouTube.
+1
The +1 button was Google+’s reaction and recommendation mechanism. It appeared within Google+ and, historically, on some external websites. Google’s shutdown removed Google+ integrations and related functionality from websites and applications.
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Google+ included photo-sharing experiences at different points in its history. However, Google Photos was not Google+. Google Photos continued as a separate product, and the Google+ shutdown did not erase a user’s Google Photos library.
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Why did Google create Google+?
Google wanted a major presence in social networking and hoped that social identity, relationships, recommendations, and sharing would strengthen its broader product ecosystem.
Its most visible design idea was that people should be able to share different things with different groups. Circles were intended to make that more deliberate than a single general-purpose friend list. Google also tested social features in search, YouTube, comments, identity systems, and other products.
Those goals explain why older articles sometimes describe Google+ as important to Google’s overall strategy. They describe the platform’s historical role, not a service that still exists.
Why did Google+ shut down?
Google cited two connected reasons: limited consumer usage and a privacy-related software bug.
Low usage and limited engagement
In its 2018 review, Google said Google+ had not achieved broad consumer or developer adoption and that usage was limited. Google reported that 90% of Google+ user sessions were shorter than five seconds in the context of that review. The company also described difficulties in building and maintaining a successful consumer product.
This is more accurate than saying that “nobody used Google+.” The service had users and active communities, but Google concluded that its consumer adoption and engagement were not strong enough to justify continuing it.
A privacy and API security incident
Google also disclosed a bug in a Google+ API that could allow third-party developers to access certain private profile information. Google said it found no evidence that developers misused the information, but the incident accelerated the shutdown timetable and increased scrutiny of the service.
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When did Google+ close?
- October 2018: Google announced plans to shut down consumer Google+ while continuing to invest in an enterprise version.
- December 10, 2018: After disclosing the software bug, Google accelerated the consumer shutdown.
- March 7, 2019: Google+ APIs, integrations, and Google+ Sign-In were shut down or deprecated.
- April 2, 2019: Consumer Google+ closed and deletion of consumer content began.
- April 10, 2019: Google announced Currents as the replacement for Google+ for G Suite.
- 2021–2023: Enterprise users were moved from Currents toward Google Chat spaces, and remaining Currents data was deleted after the migration period.
Google’s support documentation confirms that consumer Google+ content was deleted and that the shutdown did not affect other Google products. Google’s original shutdown guidance explains the April 2 closure.
Can you sign up for Google+ today?
No. There is no current consumer Google+ signup, active Google+ app, or working way to create a new Google+ profile.
An old Google+ link may be dead, redirected, or stripped of its original content. An archived tutorial may still show instructions for creating Circles, joining Communities, or publishing to a Page, but those instructions are obsolete. Installing an old app or using an existing Google Account will not restore Google+ access.
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What happened to your Google Account and other Google services?
The Google+ shutdown did not delete or disable your underlying Google Account. Gmail, YouTube, Google Drive, Google Photos, and other Google products continued separately.
It is also important to distinguish:
- Google+ posts and communities: Consumer content was deleted as part of the shutdown.
- Google Photos: This remained a separate service and was not shut down with Google+.
- Google Drive files: These were not Google+ content and were not deleted because of the shutdown.
- Brand Accounts: Associated Brand Accounts could continue independently for other Google products, even though Google+ Pages were removed.
If you are trying to find old material, check personal backups, exported archives, email notifications, screenshots, or legitimate web archives. Do not assume that a surviving Google Account means the corresponding Google+ profile or posts still exist.
Is Google+ still available for businesses or schools?
No. Google+ for G Suite did not remain available under its old name.
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- Google+ for G Suite
- Google Currents
- Google Chat spaces and other Google Workspace tools
Currents was an enterprise-oriented successor to Google+ for G Suite, but Google later shut it down and directed organizations toward spaces in Google Chat. A school or company using Google Workspace may use Gmail, Drive, Docs, Meet, Chat, Spaces, or Groups, but that does not mean it has access to Google+.
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Google Chat is not Google+. It is primarily a messaging and workplace collaboration product, not a public social network with open communities, follower profiles, and public Pages.
What should you use instead?
The best replacement depends on what you wanted to do with Google+. No modern service is a direct one-to-one replacement because Google+ combined public posting, interest communities, identity, and workplace discussion in one product.
| What you wanted to do | Current options |
|---|---|
| Internal company discussions | Google Chat spaces, Slack, or Microsoft Teams |
| Topic-based public communities | Reddit, Discord, Facebook Groups, or a specialized forum |
| Public updates and followers | YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Threads, Mastodon, or another active social network |
| Professional networking | |
| Long-form publishing | A website, blog, newsletter, Medium, or Substack |
| Workplace files and collaboration | Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Dropbox, or a similar platform |
| Private group communication | Signal, WhatsApp, Discord, Slack, or Teams |
For workplace collaboration
Google Chat spaces are the most natural destination for organizations already using Google Workspace. Slack is often better for channel-based team communication and integrations, while Microsoft Teams fits organizations already using Microsoft 365, Outlook, SharePoint, and Office applications.
These tools are workplace systems, not public social networks. Some features may require an organization-managed account or paid plan.
For interest communities
Reddit is suited to topic-focused, searchable discussions. Discord is commonly used for live conversation, creator communities, gaming, and groups that need roles and moderation. Facebook Groups and specialized forums may be better for communities whose members already use those services.
Each platform differs in moderation, privacy, identity, discovery, and ownership. None reproduces Google+ exactly.
For professional identity and publishing
LinkedIn is the closest fit for professional networking and public career updates. For content you control more directly, use your own website, blog, or newsletter rather than relying entirely on a discontinued social platform.
What about Google+ and SEO?
Older advice sometimes recommended Google+ as an SEO tactic because Google owned the service and historically offered +1 buttons and other integrations. That advice is obsolete.
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There is no current Google+ publishing platform on which to build an SEO strategy, and posting to Google+ cannot currently improve search rankings. Any article that tells you to create Google+ Circles, join Google+ Communities, build a Google+ Page, or use Google+ Sign-In is presenting historical information as if it were current.
For developers: what replaced Google+ Sign-In?
Google+ APIs and integrations shut down on March 7, 2019. Applications that depended on them could stop working or require migration. Google directed developers toward applicable modern options such as Google Sign-In and the Google People API.
Modern Google Account authentication is separate from restoring Google+ functionality. A website can support Google account login without providing a Google+ profile, feed, Page, or community.
See Google’s API shutdown guidance and documentation on the Google+ integrations shutdown for historical migration details.
Bottom line
Google+ was Google’s social network, built around profiles, Circles, Communities, Pages, Collections, posts, photos, and +1 recommendations. The consumer service closed on April 2, 2019, and its APIs and integrations had already shut down on March 7.
You should not try to use Google+ today because it no longer exists as a consumer or business social platform. Use Google Chat or another workplace tool for internal collaboration, a community platform for interest groups, LinkedIn for professional networking, or a website and newsletter for owned publishing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Google+ the same as Gmail?
No. Google+ was a separate social-networking product that used Google Accounts for identity. Gmail and other Google Account services continued after Google+ closed.
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Is Google+ the same as Google Photos?
No. Google Photos was a separate service and was not shut down when consumer Google+ closed.
Is Google Currents still available?
No. Currents, the enterprise successor to Google+ for G Suite, was later shut down. Google directed organizations toward Google Chat spaces.
Can businesses still create Google+ Pages?
No. Google+ Pages were removed with consumer Google+. Related Brand Accounts may still exist independently for other Google products.
What happened to Google+ Sign-In?
Google+ Sign-In and the Google+ APIs and integrations were shut down on March 7, 2019. Developers should use current Google authentication documentation instead.
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