Google+ for business is shutting down. The Google Currents project will begin to wind down starting in 2023.
In early July 2020, Google closed the Google+ user service, but left G Suite for corporate users, renaming it Google Currents. The company also removed the Google+ mobile app from public access. It's worth noting that Currents hasn't changed much since it became a business product.
Google is now offering businesses a different Chat product as a replacement. This is one of the company's latest messaging apps. The media reported that Chat was conceived as a competitor to Slack and then launched as a replacement for the Google Hangouts consumer app. It now appears to be purporting to replace Google+ as the company announced it will "bring remaining content and communities into the new Spaces experience."
Spaces is the name of Google Chats, but the blog post mentions "Spaces" without reference to it, as if it were a separate Google product.
Last year, during the announcement of Chat Spaces, Google said that it "turned Rooms in Google Chat into a dedicated place for organizing people, topics and projects in Google Workspace." The company promised a streamlined and flexible user interface that will help teams and individuals get the job done.
Google Chat Spaces also features prominently in the new Gmail design, sitting right below the Chat list. In June 2021, Gmail was merged with Google Chat, Google Docs, and Google Meet. Spaces has two modes: one works like a group chat, and the other makes each message the start of a thread, reminiscent of a forum. A link to Google docs can be sent to the chat, and it can be opened there. This will bring up a split screen with Google Chat on the left and Google Doc on the right.
Before G+ data is migrated to Google Chat, a number of changes are expected: new features in Spaces, support for large communities, investments in advanced search, content moderation tools, security for enterprise-level compliance, including data protection, data loss prevention (DLP) and storage support.
In October 2020, Google announced a global rebrand of G Suite. The company has made it more integrated and renamed it Google Workspace. Google has also changed the subscription price of its products and added a new Business Plus plan, which provides more features for managing applications. Google Workspace pricing starts at $5.4 per month with the Business Starter package. The Business Standard version costs $10.8 and the Business Plus version costs $18. The Enterprise plan is available for companies with more than 300 employees.
In January 2022, Google announced that it would be eliminating free G Suite plans by July 1, 2022. Users were asked to choose a suitable tariff plan before May 1 this year. The news caused dissatisfaction among users who used the G Suite workspace for personal purposes - the system did not allow them to fully transfer their data. As a result, Google promised that it would add a system for transferring all data, including purchased content, to free accounts.
According to Killed by Google, the company has retired 264 products, including 50 apps, 193 services and 21 hardware products.
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