Updated 1st July 2026. First published in 2017.
Yes, Google+ is dead. Google closed it to personal and brand accounts on 2nd April 2019, less than eight years after it launched as the social network that would rival Facebook.
Google+ failed because too few people used it, Circles confused them and two data bugs in 2018 gave Google a reason to close it early. Parts of it live on in Google Photos and Google Business Profile. Its story is also a useful warning for any brand that relies on one platform.
Post summary
Is Google+ dead?
Why people thought Google+ was dead
Google Plus by the numbers
What changed in 2015
Google+ Communities and Collections
My original advice in 2017
What brands can learn from Google+
Need help with social media and SEO?
Frequently asked questions
Is Google+ dead?
Google+ launched in June 2011 to huge excitement. By 2018, Google admitted that 90% of user sessions lasted less than five seconds.
That October, Google found a bug that had exposed profile data from up to 500,000 accounts. It announced the closure of the consumer version the same day.
In December 2018, a second bug affected 52.5 million users, so Google brought the closure forward. Google+ shut down for personal and brand accounts on 2nd April 2019.
The business version lasted a little longer. Google replaced it with Currents in 2020, then closed Currents in 2023 and moved users to Google Chat.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| June 2011 | Google+ launches with Circles and Hangouts |
| May 2012 | Google+ Local replaces Google Places |
| April 2014 | Vic Gundotra, the head of Google+, leaves Google |
| June 2014 | Google My Business takes over local business pages |
| July 2015 | YouTube and other Google services stop requiring a Google+ account |
| November 2015 | Redesign around Communities and Collections |
| October 2018 | A bug exposes data from up to 500,000 accounts and Google announces the closure |
| December 2018 | A second bug affects 52.5 million users and the closure is brought forward |
| April 2019 | Google+ shuts down for personal and brand accounts |
| July 2020 | Currents replaces Google+ for G Suite business users |
| 2023 | Currents closes and users move to Google Chat |
I first wrote this article in 2017, when it still looked as though Google+ might find its place. Here's how it opened.
Once lauded as the social network to watch, it appears that Google+ has taken a backseat whilst platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter (now X), Pinterest and Facebook have continued to dominate the social media space. But don't dismiss it just yet.
Author update 8th October 2018. Google has announced it will be shutting down Google+ due to severe data breaches. So, in effect, Google Plus IS now dead!
Why people thought Google+ was dead
The sections that follow are from my original article, lightly edited, so you can see how Google+ looked to marketers before it closed.
The site has certainly seen its fair share of criticism in the past. Tech media hasn't held back either, asking is Google Plus dead and declaring outright that the network is obsolete.
The number of those who still love the service fell quickly after those heady days of the summer of 2011. Google did so many things right; the design was great (and used what were, at the time, really advanced web technologies) and its focus on privacy with the help of its Circles seemed like the right antidote to Facebook. People (like yours truly) were genuinely excited about Google+.
However, Circles turned out to be too complicated for most people (and the idea of categorising your friends always seemed strange), the fact that Google didn’t allow anonymous users quickly created a backlash and even after Google changed its policy, the sour taste of those early days remained for many.
In 2019, a Brookings Institution paper on privacy policy and competition cited this point as part of the reason Google+ never gained traction.
In those early days, Google also seemed to focus more on figuring out ways to beef up Google+'s user numbers than on improving the product.
Unlike Twitter, Google also kept the service mostly closed to third-party developers because the company didn't want to "disrupt something very special" and "magical."
Google's insistence on building social (and hence Google+) into all of its products, largely driven by the project's head Vic Gundotra, was one step too far and after Gundotra's exit in early 2014, it probably spent as many engineering hours on removing all of its Google+ integrations as it did on building them in the first place. When Google+ realised it could not steal Facebook and Twitter's users, it found it could be more than a social media platform. It became a discovery tool for quality content.
Unlike Google's other social experiments, like the ill-fated Buzz, Google+ is still alive all these years later. It created some awesome products like Hangouts and Google Photos. With numerous redesigns and added features the interest and value in the social network returned.
Yet, some brands are still asking whether Google+ is relevant for businesses. Should you continue devoting time and resources to it?
The answer is yes. But before I dive into why, let's take a quick look at the current state of Google+.
Google Plus by the numbers
Demographics for Google+ are still hard to come by but there appears to be some great SEO potential. Here's what a Statistic Brain report found.
74% of users are male
26% of users are female
55% of users are from the US
18% of users are from India
6% of users are from Brazil
5% of users are from the UK
4% of users are from Canada
There is some discrepancy around how many active users are on Google Plus. Some reports claim the site has upward of 343 million, whilst more recent studies found just 9% (roughly 198 million) of Google's 2.2 billion users actually post content on the platform.
But instead of dismissing the platform and asking is Google Plus dead, let's not forget that you always want to think in terms of quality and not quantity when it comes to successful social media marketing. So whether there are 22 million or 343 million people posting consistently on Google+, there are still millions of opportunities to engage.
What changed in 2015
In 2015 Google began rolling out a redesigned Google+. In addition to a simpler look and feel, Communities and Collections are now at the centre of it all. According to Google, these are the two features its user base utilises the most. Google My Business was also made easier, to increase your brand's local awareness. But since Google+'s Communities and Collections are now such a big part of the Google Plus experience, let's take a closer look at these features.
Google+ Communities and Collections
Google+ Communities
As a business using social media, one of your goals should be to create a thriving and engaged community around your product or service. With Google+ Communities, you can finally do just that.
Google+ Communities are groups created around a specific interest, organisation or passion by either an individual or a business. They're free, and a great way to engage customers in direct conversation. Communities can be public or private, open to everyone or accessible by invite only.
Creating a Google+ Community is easy. If you're already using the new version of Google+, click on the menu icon in the top left corner of the screen and scroll down to Communities. From there, click on the Yours tab and then click on Create a community.
If you're still using the classic version of Google+, click on the drop-down menu at the top left corner of the screen and select Communities. Once there, click on the blue Create community button to the right of Community Invitations.
Just remember that you're only as strong as your moderator team. Moderators keep the stream populated with interesting content and clear of spam (which like all social media communities, will also occur in Google Plus). I recommend asking someone directly involved with your business to act as a moderator, like a social media manager, but it's also beneficial to share that title with some of your most loyal and active brand evangelists.
Sometimes creating your own community might not make the most sense for your brand, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't participate in them. You can search for existing Communities relevant to your industry.
For example, since Blu Mint works with a lot of other marketers, our team is active in several online marketing communities. Not only are we engaging around a topic we're passionate about, but we're exchanging ideas with our peers and customers.
You can also use Communities to inspire content. For example, Word of the Day, Joke of the Day or Thinkers could be just what you need to obtain some creativity. At the very least, it could inspire some unique content to share with your own Community.
Google+ Collections
Google+ Collections are similar to Communities in that they're built around shared interests, but there's a shift in who controls the published content.
This feature lets you create content collections around topics and interests, and it also lets your followers choose the type of posts they want to see from you. For example, as a regular blog writer for my own company or for clients, I use Google Collections to demonstrate my portfolio of writing skills.
Collections can be shared publicly, privately or with specific sets of users. You can also decide whether people who follow you will automatically follow one of your Collections.
When someone follows your Collection, the posts you make in that Collection will appear in their home stream. They'll be able to +1, comment on and re-share any posts you add to your Collection.
Once clicked, the user is taken to a new stream full of posts that have been added to that Collection. You can either browse through the Collection or click on Follow to receive updates in your home stream whenever a new post is added.
From a user's perspective, Collections allow the person to clean up their stream and fine tune it to better match their own interests. Unlike on Facebook, where you're up against their ever-changing algorithm, Google Plus puts the user in control of what they want to see. What this means for businesses is that if someone follows your Collection, they're opting in to seeing more of you and your content.
Google+ Communities vs Collections
The two features detailed above are now the mainstay of Google+'s offerings to users and businesses. They're very similar in nature, so let's determine what makes them different so you're ready to start using them.
Google+ Communities
Can have more than one owner and moderator.
Allow other users to join a Community and post their own content.
Let other members of that Community possibly see your posts in their home stream.
Google+ Collections
Are created by just one person and only that person can post content.
Let you follow someone else's Collection, but you can't share posts into someone else's Collection.
My original advice in 2017
Don't give up on Google Plus yet
Google Plus may have gone through a lot of changes since its launch, but it's far from dead. The only thing that's changed is how people are using it, and it is user interest that matters most here. While people turn to Facebook to share everything from articles to status updates about their daily lives, content on Google Plus seems focused around a particular topic.
This creates a huge opportunity for businesses to segment audiences and share content with highly targeted groups.
Additionally, there is a plethora of ways to engage, from small actions including +1s to in-depth conversations in Communities. Everything you do on Google+ drives people back to your Google+ Page and website. If you're sceptical about Google+, monitor your activity and re-evaluate after a couple of months.
Looking back
I was right that people used Google+ for focused conversations around shared interests. However, there were never enough of them.
Less than two years after I wrote this, Google announced it was closing the network. Every Community, Collection and +1 that brands had built disappeared with it.
What brands can learn from Google+
Google+ had the backing of one of the biggest companies in the world, and it still closed. Here's what its story teaches brands about social media today.
Own your audience
Social networks are rented land. The platform sets the rules, changes the algorithm and can close the doors whenever it chooses.
Your website, your search rankings and your email list belong to you. Build there first, then use social media to bring people back. Strong SEO and emails that attract clients keep working whatever happens to a platform.
Google Business Profile is the part that survived
For many businesses, the most useful part of Google+ was its local listings. Google folded Google+ Local into Google My Business in 2014, then renamed it Google Business Profile in 2021.
It's still one of the best free ways to appear in Google Search and Maps. Keep yours up to date with photos, posts and reviews.
Test new platforms, don't bet everything on them
Social media is splitting again. Since 2023, Threads and Bluesky have drawn millions of users away from X, and brands face the same question they faced with Google+ in 2011. Is this the next big network?
The answer is to test it, measure it and keep your options open. It's worth learning how to get Bluesky followers, however no single network should carry your whole social media strategy.
Social still helps search
Google+ promised SEO benefits that never quite arrived. Today the link is clearer, as Google shows posts from X, Instagram and other platforms in its results, and AI tools draw on social content too.
That means social media can boost SEO, as long as your posts point people back to content you own.
Need help with social media and SEO?
We help businesses across the USA and Europe build an audience they own, through social media, SEO and content writing that lasts longer than any one platform. Get in touch to talk about your goals.
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Google+ shut down for personal and brand accounts on 2nd April 2019. The business version, which Google replaced with Currents in 2020, closed in 2023.
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Too few people used it regularly, and Google admitted that 90% of sessions lasted less than five seconds. Circles confused users, Google forced Google+ into its other products and two data bugs in 2018 led Google to close it.
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Google Business Profile, previously Google My Business, replaced the local business pages. It lets you manage how your business appears in Google Search and Maps, share posts and reply to reviews.
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Yes, if your audience is there. Test a new network, measure the results and keep building your website, search rankings and email list, so your business doesn't depend on one platform.
