Google Plus has officially been laid to rest after its mobile apps have both been rebranded as ‘Google Currents’ this week.
Google may have failed with Google Plus, but it’s putting the social network to good use in the form of Google Currents – a new social network for enterprise users. As of this week, Currents is generally available to G Suite customers, and Google Plus’ Android and iOS apps have now been rebranded to Google Currents as well.
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Google Currents is designed to aid communication within organizations, letting users view content in a “home stream” – by relevance or chronologically – as well as post and comment on discussions. The platform also allows G Suite admins to moderate discussions if necessary.
In 2018, Google started to shut down Google Plus, due partly to “low usage and engagement” and security issues. The latter accelerated the process by around four months. The multistep shutdown process began with the deletion of consumer accounts in April 2019. Google Currents was then launched in beta shortly thereafter.
This is not Google’s first product named Currents. A magazine app under the same name was available until 2013 when it was then rebranded as Google Play Newsstand – the predecessor or Google News.