Google+ losing key features next week, shuttering on April 2
After back-to-back data leaks, Google's failed social media platform, Google+, is on the verge of being buried. The service is set to be shuttered on April 2, and the search giant has announced its key features will be killed off in the coming days. It has revealed a detailed shutdown timeline, giving users enough time to save their data. Here are the details.
February 4: Key features to be killed
Starting next week, February 4 to be exact, Google+ will no longer allow creation of new profiles, pages, communities, or events. Also, in the weeks leading up to April 2, Google will disable the options for signing into services or leaving comments on websites via Google+. In some cases, as the company claims, the Google+ sign-in button will be replaced with that of Google.
Comments left using Google+ will be removed in April
Google has said the option to leave comments via Google+ will be removed from Blogger by February 4 and other websites by March 7; all comments posted via Google+ will be removed starting April 2.
April 2: Complete deletion of Google+
After removing the above-mentioned features, Google will start the process of complete Google+ shutdown on April 2. As part of this, the search giant will delete your Google+ account, page, and the content associated with them. It will also remove all photos, videos held in your account/page Album Archive as part of the same process.
Note: Full deletion might take a while
Google has emphasized that the removal of accounts and their content might take some time, maybe months. As such, during this time, users might be able to see parts of their account via activity logs.
G Suite accounts, Google Photos won't be impacted
Having said that, it is important to note that only the consumer version of Google+ is shutting down. If you're an enterprise G suite customer, Google+ for you will continue to operate normally. So, put simply, no other Google service would be affected as part of this shutdown, not even photos and videos back up with Google Photos.
How can you back up your data?
As the deadline for shutdown is not far, it is recommended to export Google+ data that may be of value to you. For this, head over to https://bit.ly/2HGYMZF and select if you need all data related to Google+ streams, events, and communities, or just specific items like photos and posts. After this, select export file type to get it delivered on your mail/drive.
