Google Workspace Loses One of Its Least Successful Apps

While the best projects by Google (search systems, mobile platforms, mail, or translators) are all around us, many more of them silently die and go to the Google cemetery. Another one that could have made it big within Google Workspace but didn’t is Currents. Designed to be the ultimate communication tool within the suite, it turned out to be simply unused.

While other parts of the suite, including Docs, Drive, and Meet, are well afloat and in demand, Google Currents didn’t turn out to be an integral part of a collaboration for Workspace users. More exactly, it was hardly needed by anyone. The meet was a great tool for conferences, and it still is, while Google Chat was quite good for texting if you didn’t want to involve anything external, like WhatsApp or Messenger.

The predecessor of Currents, named Google Plus, made its way to the cemetery back in 2019. Currents were made as a replacement, but, instead of Plus with its unclear purpose, it was initially planned as a social extension for Workspace. Now it’s doomed; in 2023, Alphabet will start shutting it down, as the corporate blog says.

It doesn’t mean that Google gives up on the idea. Instead, it’s going to further develop Spaces, which, as Google admits, has become a much more welcomed addition to Workspace. Spaces take the idea of group communication centered around a certain project and embody it with all of its design. It was the right direction, as it turns out, but it took some braver steps to decline the idea of making Google’s version of Facebook and focus on expanding Workspace instead.

Have you ever used Google Currents? If not, we don’t even ask you why. But if you have had any experience with Google Spaces and think it’s worth your attention, we’d like you to share it. Maybe, with some good feedback and publicity, Google will finally make its social environment. Let’s speak in the comments about what we think about it.