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Update on the Google+ API for developers and website owners

Update March 10, 2019: The Google+ API has shut down, and buttons, badges and embedded posts no longer display. If you have code for these on your website or blog, now is the time to remove it.

Update February 28: See the latest update with changes that may mitigate the effects for some developers.

The Google+ API will shut down on March 7 with "intermittent failures" starting as early as January 28. The "sunsetting" of Google+ for consumers is scheduled for April 2019, so it will outlive the API by a few weeks .

Google has updated the Google+ Platform Developer site with more details about the shutdown of the platform over the coming months. The Google+ APIs will be completely shut down and cease to function March 7, 2019. There may be "intermittent failures" as early as January 28th.

This will not only affect developers, but also website owners who have added Google+ integration features to their site.  And if you use social media management services like Hootsuite or Buffer, those will stop working.

The Google+ API includes:
If you have a website, but aren't a developer, all you should need to do remove Google+ badges, buttons and embedded posts. If you have a Blogger blog with a standard theme, Blogger will removed those gadgets automatically, but it won't hurt to remove those now.


If you are a Developer, but aren't sure if your apps use a Google+ API, Google+ says:
On or around December 20, 2018, developers should receive an email listing recently used Google+ API methods in their projects. Whether or not an email was received, we strongly encourage developers to search for and remove any dependencies on Google+ APIs from their applications.
I'll note that the Google+ Hangouts API, which let developers create "apps" for Hangouts video calls stopped being supported in April 2017. However, a few apps were allowed to continue running: 
  • The ability to dial into a call (served by the Dialpad and RingCentral apps)
  • Integrations with other enterprise communications tools (e.g. Slack)
  • Hangouts on Air broadcasting tools (Toolbox, Control Room, Cameraman)
Update March 10, 2019: While those apps appear to still be working now that the rest of the Google+ API has shut down, Google has not provided any additional information about what will be happening with those integrations when consumer Google+ shuts down on April 2.

Learn more about how the shutdown of Google+ will affect Google Products

Updated January 2019 with link to information about changes to Blogger with the shutdown of the Google+ API

Comments

  1. Replies
    1. Google+ is shutting down. Here is the reason Google gave:

      The review did highlight the significant challenges in creating and maintaining a successful Google+ that meets consumers’ expectations. Given these challenges and the very low usage of the consumer version of Google+, we decided to sunset the consumer version of Google+.

      From this announcement: www.blog.google/technology/safety-security/project-strobe/

      Delete

  2. The review did highlight the significant challenges in creating and maintaining a successful Google+ that meets consumers’ expectations. Given these challenges and the very low usage of the consumer version of Google+, we decided to sunset the consumer version of Google+.

    ReplyDelete

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