Google is an app cancellation machine. 5 of the 10 Android apps that stopped working in 2022 are theirs. Those of Mountain View are known for trying their luck with many applications and, if after a while they do not meet expectations, they close them and recycle their technology to create new ones . That is what they are doing with Google Stadia and what they did with Google+, their social network launched in 2011 that closed 3 years ago.
What many do not know is that what closed Google+ was only its social component for users. Google maintained an enterprise version called Currents for businesses to communicate with employees. However, they have now announced that Currents will also close due to low usage and will be replaced by Spaces. And no, we are not talking about Twitter Spaces, but about Google Spaces. Then we will tell you what this app is like and what it is for.
Did you use Currents? Now you will have to switch to Google Spaces
Google Spaces is not a new app. It originally started out as “Rooms” but got a big name change and overhaul when Workspace went free. Spaces is a platform dedicated to organizing people, topics, and projects that tightly integrates with Gmail, Calendar, Drive, and Meet . It’s kind of like Slack, albeit without as many community-type features, so Google is expected to integrate some features of Currents into Spaces.
The main reason why Google has replaced Currents with Spaces is probably the great resemblance of these apps that makes one of the two unnecessary. They have stuck with Spaces because this service is integrated into Google’s ecosystem of productive apps (you have it in the side menu of Gmail), which makes it a better solution for business collaboration compared to Currents which only works as an application Independent.
Google’s plan is to close Currents starting next year , but first they will migrate the platform’s content and communities to Spaces. And in the meantime, they’ll use the time to improve Spaces with support for larger communities , advanced search, content moderation tools, data loss prevention (DLP), and Vault support. Most of these features will be inherited from Currents.
Mind you, not all of the features from Currents will make it to Spaces . Google will remove features that people didn’t use much like post analytics, popular tags page, profile influence, mobile notifications, and more.
Businesses using Currents will be able to migrate their data to Spaces in the coming months using a tool Google will launch soon. So, if you used this service, stay tuned.
Source | Google Workspace Official Blog
