Nobody shed a tear (or really noticed) when Google+ shut its doors last April following a months-long wind-down period, but Google refused to let it completely die. Instead, it rebranded it as Google Currents and gave it an enterprise bent.
After more than a year in beta, Google Currents—which is itself a rebrand of an early Google News app—is finally launching on July 6 but only for G Suite members. It looks a whole lot like Google+ but with a cleaner UI and a focus on productivity. According to the Google Currents beta page, the new network is a place to “share ideas with employees and gather input through meaningful, focused discussions on topics that matter to your organization.”
Whether Currents will ever become a thing people want to use is a big question. When Google announced it was shutting down Plus, it also disclosed a massive data breach that affected some 50 million users. Affected accounts had their name, email address, occupation, and age exposed to third-party developers, regardless of whether their account was set to private. Google blamed that breach on a bug that it says was quickly squashed.
It’s unclear whether Google will attempt to bring Currents to a wider consumer audience like it recently did with its Meet video conferencing service in April. Previously only available to G Suite members, Meet is now completely free for everyone until September, at which point Google will limit non-G Suite meetings to 60-minute calls.
All Google+ accounts that weren’t already deactivated have been converted to Currents accounts, but only for G Suite members. Existing Google Plus links will automatically redirect to Currents. Furthermore, an Android app will be rolling out at some point following the launch.
This story, “Google launches Currents to replace Google+ because it won’t let social networks die” was originally published by
