Google to shut down Google+ for consumer accounts on April 2

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Google will reportedly shut-down its Google+ service on April 2nd due to low user engagement on the platform, according to a recent company blog post.

From February 4th, the platform will no longer accept new profiles, pages, communities, or events.

The closure of its service comes six months after the firm said that it would start the shut-down process.

Accelerated Google+ shut down
The firm cites lower user engagement as the reason for the closure, but the decision follows the revelation of a previously undisclosed security flaw that exposed the private data of 500,000 users’, to hundreds of third-party app developers.

Following the breach, which occurred in December last year, the company said it plans to accelerate the shut-down of Google+ (consumer version) after the discovery of a developer bug.

The company originally planned to shut-down Google+ for consumers in August 2019, so consumers had less than a year to download any data Google+ data or any other data connected to their accounts.

But now the deadline to download any important data has been pushed forward to early April.

“Starting April 2nd, 2019, we will shut down your Google+ account and any pages you created, and we’ll begin deleting content from consumer Google+ accounts,” Google stated. “Photos and videos from Google+ in your Album Archive and your Google+ pages will also be deleted. If you have Google+ content that you would like to save, you must do so before April 2nd.”

Saving data
Google provided instruction on how users’ can save and retain their data.

Google also said the enterprise version of Google+ will remain active for enterprise users.

“While we bring consumer Google+ to a close, we are continuing our investment in Google+ for the enterprise,” the firm said. “This means that for those of you who use Google+ as part of G Suite, your accounts will remain active. G Suite users include businesses who pay for its services and educational institutions and other organisations that use G Suite at no cost.”

The company said it will be shutting down all Google+ APIs, which also includes Google Plus Sign-in and requests for Google+ OAuth scopes.

“We have already begun the wind-down process and developers may notice intermittent API failures leading up to March 7th, 2019, when APIs will be fully shut-down.”

Google also sought to thank all its users over the years for their support.

“We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of our Google+ users who’ve built their communities with us over the years,” said the firm. “We appreciate what you’ve created and your contributions.”