By Digital giant Google will shut all consumer (personal) Google+ accounts, Google+ Pages, and Album Archive by Tuesday, 2nd April 2019, according to a statement from the entity.
“It will destroy and change my entire digital communication plan,” said Jason Ledwaba, a Communication Master’s Degree Student at the University of Johannesburg (UJ).
“I have trusted Google for many years now and if they do this it would be the end of wonderful relationship. My world would change for the worst,” he added.
Videos and images from these platforms will take several months to be deleted, during which, “[f]or 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,” Google states in a statement.
The materials are downloadable before the start of April. On the other hand, content stored in Google Photos, which is used by many including students to safe-keep images online, will still be available.
“In December 2018, we announced our decision to shut down Google+ for consumers in April 2019 due to low usage and challenges involved in maintaining a successful product that meets consumers’ expectations,” the digital company wrote in a public note.
“I really don’t think that it will affect me because I really was not active in it due to less people using it and it was always quiet,” said Jephthah Ngoyi-toka, a second-year Mechanical Engineering student at UJ.
G Suite customers will maintain their respective Google+ accounts but are to expect a makeover of this platform. G Suite refers to the paid Google account for businesses with a minimum monthly cost of $5.00 (R66.65, when $1 is R13.33).
Dating from Monday, 4th February 2018, it shall be impossible to make new Google+ profiles, pages, communities or events.
Google+ forms part of the sort after Google’s personal account, which is commonly known for its Gmail and Google Drive, amongst other features familiar to students such as Google Play and Google Maps.
Consequences
- 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 administrator for 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. TOJ
Reporting by Gaby Ndongo
Feature image: Google+ logo illustration.
Image courtesy to Gaby Ndongo.
Youth Chronicle 
Ahh the app was useless by the way…waste of storage!