Google has announced that it is dropping the requirement to have a Google+ account in order to share content, communicate with others, and create a channel on YouTube. Users will now only need their general Google accounts to access all the products.
When we launched Google+, we set out to help people discover, share and connect across Google like they do in real life. While we got certain things right, we made a few choices that, in hindsight, we’ve needed to rethink. So over the next few months, we’re going to be making some important changes. Here’s more about what you can expect.
said Bradley Horowitz, VP of streams, photos, and sharing, in a company blog
Unlike your public Google+ profile, your Google account is not searchable or followable. Google will soon make it easy for those who have already created Google+ accounts but don’t use them to manage or delete them entire. The change will eventually apply to all of Google’s services, but the company is starting with YouTube. Starting today, the comments you make on YouTube will no longer appear on Google+ and vice versa. In the “coming weeks,” YouTube will no longer require a Google+ profile when you want to upload, comment, or create a channel. That means if you want to remove your Google+ profile, you’ll be able to do so “in the coming months.”
The latest change comes after Google announced last week that it is shutting down Google+ Photos and pushing people to its new Photos service. Google has been striving hard to position Google+ as a social network but the service has failed to pick up over the years. In May, Google+ got Collections feature that allows users to create different category boards such as images, videos and other content in Google Plus.