Google has revealed plans to shut down Google+ Photos, just two months after it launched Google Photos service. Google confirmed this development via the official Google+ account.
It said it is shutting the service that was initially created as a photo storage and sharing platform into Google’s social networking site, Google+. According to Google, the shutdown would take place on the 1st of August and would occur in several phases.
The Android app would take the first hit, followed by the web and then the iOS app. The decision to shut it down was reached to ensure that there is a standalone Google app for photo sharing as the popularity Google Photos will make Google+ Photos a redundant app because Google Photos offer better options like unlimited storage, automatic backups, ability to organize the pictures as collections etc. This would also eliminate the confusion caused by the similar names of the two hosts.
According to Techvoize, current users of Google+ Photos are required, as prompted by the company, to switch the location of their images and videos to the new Google Photos by updating the Google+ app and installing the Google Photos.
Google is also offering a tool to the users to help them with the transition and this tool can be found on the Google+ account’s Photos page of individual users.
“Even if users miss the deadline for transferring their photos, they would still be able to access and download their videos and pictures from ‘photos.google.com’ using Google Takeout. This transfer would not prove to be a huge task if the user does not have all their pictures dumped in Google+ Photos. This change is sure to be welcomed by many because this update has a cleaner, more organized interface with better options as compared to the older app being bolted on to Google+,” Techvoize reported.
