Google will be making Currents, its Google Plus replacement, generally available to G Suite users beginning July 6th, the company announced in an email to G Suite administrators on Friday. Google describes Currents as a tool that will allow companies to engage employees and have meaningful discussions.
Highlights:
- Google shut down Google Plus as a social network in 2019 due to low usage.
- All Google+ accounts that weren’t already deactivated have been converted to Currents accounts, but only for G Suite members
Google shut down Google Plus as a social network in 2019 due to low usage, but an enterprise version for G Suite customers was still available. Any lingering Google Plus enterprise users will be transitioned to Currents next month, and Plus links will redirect to Currents URLs.
The interface for Currents includes a home stream, which can either be ordered chronologically or by relevance, and allows sharing of links, images, text, polls, and content from Google Drive accounts. Company admins will have added content moderation features, will be able to target certain employees with custom streams and can track engagement of posts across the platform.
Currents have been in beta for several months among some G Suite users. While Google unsuccessfully tried to position Google Plus as a potential competitor to Facebook or Twitter, Currents appears to more closely resemble Slack or Microsoft Teams. It’s rolling out at a time when more people are using collaboration software to work remotely, which led to Slack breaking a user record in March.
This is not the first time Google has rolled out a product called Currents; it was previously a magazine app that went through a few iterations before becoming Google News.
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.