Subscribers to the Google+ social media service have been given detailed instructions on how to rescue their photos, videos and other content when the service shuts down on 2 April 2019. Users will have a few months to retrieve their data after the closure.
Ostensibly, the closure is due to low usage, but several security breaches hastened its demise. Google blames “challenges involved in maintaining a successful product that meets consumers’ expectations”.
“The process of deleting content from consumer Google+ accounts, Google+ Pages, and Album Archive will take a few months, and content may remain through this time,” subscribers were told. “For example, users may still see parts of their Google+ account via activity log and some consumer Google+ content may remain visible to G Suite users until consumer Google+ is deleted.”
As early as this week, however, users are no longer able to create new Google+ profiles, pages, communities or events.
Google provided the following guidelines to users:
* If you’re a Google+ Community owner or moderator, you may download and save your data for your Google+Community. Starting early March 2019, additional data will be available for download, including author, body, and photos for every community post in a public community. Learn more
* If you sign in to sites and apps using the Google+ Sign-in button, these buttons will stop working in the coming weeks but in some cases may be replaced by a Google Sign-in button. You’ll still be able to sign in with your Google Account wherever you see Google Sign-in buttons. Learn more
* If you’ve used Google+ for comments on your own or other sites, this feature will be removed from Blogger by February 4th and other sites by March 7th. All your Google+ comments on all sites will be deleted starting April 2, 2019. Learn more
* If you’re a G Suite customer, Google+ for your G Suite account should remain active. Contact your G Suite administratorfor more details. You can also expect a new look and new features soon. Learn more
* If you’re a developer using Google+ APIs or Google+ Sign-in, click here to see how this will impact you.
