Google will wind down Currents, the paid and private Google+ for enterprises, starting in 2023; Google shut down the consumer version of Google+ in April 2019
Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica :
Context & Ripple Effects
Currents was introduced as an enterprise successor after Google set a date for deleting consumer Google+ content, then entered beta as a Google+ replacement for workplace users. The planned wind-down closes the remaining product line built around the Google+ brand.
The later plan to end Currents rather than maintain a separate destination frames the move as a retreat from standalone enterprise social networking inside Google’s workplace portfolio.
First-order effects
- Currents customers and administrators must prepare for a product retirement beginning in 2023, ending Google’s paid, private continuation of Google+.
- Google completes the shutdown path that began with consumer Google+, leaving the enterprise successor without a long-term runway.
Second-order effects
- Workplace teams using Currents will need to move internal community activity out of a dedicated Google+ successor, increasing the importance of the collaboration tools they already use.
- Google’s product organization avoids extending support for a separate enterprise social destination, a direction made explicit in its later August 2023 Currents closure plan.
Third-order effects
- If Google continues to favor integrated work surfaces over standalone social products, enterprise community features will be evaluated as parts of broader collaboration suites rather than independent destinations.
- The Google+ sequence illustrates how a consumer-platform failure can constrain its enterprise successor: private, paid positioning alone did not establish a durable separate product category.
The trend: Enterprise collaboration is moving away from standalone internal social networks toward features embedded in broader workplace software.