Google+ is officially dead

The company has turned the iOS and Android apps into Currents

Google+ has finally been shut down.

Nearly a decade after its launch in 2011, Google+'s iOS and Android apps have now been rebranded as Google Currents.

The move has been expected for over a year. In April 2019, when Google+ was shuttered, the company said that it would be replacing it with a new business tool.

It will now become a workplace social network, like Facebook Workplace.

Existing Google+ links will now redirect to Google Currents pages.

As 9to5Google notes, the user interface is mostly unchanged.

Posts are ranked on the app’s home screen either in order to relevancy or time, with content from company leadership given priority with a sparkle icon.

Currents links with Google Drive, to share text, links, images, as well as other features such as polls.

Google+ had a long, largely unsuccessful history since its inception in 2011. It was rebooted in 2016 by the company with greater attempts to make its app more social, but failed to truly take off.

It was designed around collections and communities rather than a social space, but following a data leak the search giant decided to end the app’s life as a social network rather than a business tool.

Google is not ending its development of new entertainment services, though. The company recently released a new app called Keen to compete with Pinterest.

Keen lets users curate content from the web, and will use machine learning to recommend new content.