TECH

How Currents, Google's new social network, will work

Did you use Google+? Well, neither do we. The social network, created in 2011, tried to compete with Twitter and Facebook - and never succeeded. Eight years later, in 2019, it was practically extinct, and the only thing that still worked there was a corporate version, used by companies as a working environment for their teams.
Last week, Google officially decreed the end of the network. It will give way to Currents, which intends to rival platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams, whose adoption has been increasingly greater due to the remote work of the quarantine. They are basically a virtual office, where all employees of a team can interact from a distance.
The old Google+ will be available until July 6 for anyone using the G Suite - a paid package with corporate versions of Google services, such as Gmail, Drive, Spreadsheets and Slides (and which can also be used by educational institutions, with G Suite for Education). Then it will be automatically switched to Currents.
The network's objective is precisely to facilitate the integration of all these resources. From what has been shown so far, the interface is very reminiscent of that of Google+: the timeline is organized by cards, which can appear in chronological order or by relevance, and it is possible to include links, images and videos in the posts.
To stand out from the competition, Currents promises to provide tools for advertising and post analysis, as well as creating topics for discussion. The administrators and managers of the companies that adhere to the environment will be able to moderate resources, as well as create personalized post flows for employees, in order to optimize the work.

The important thing is to try
Despite the recent announcement, Currents had been in beta for months for some G Suite users - Google introduced the platform to the public in April 2019. With the final move, everyone using the corporate version of Google+ will automatically migrate to the new network. Old links will also be redirected.
Yeah. In terms of social networking, Google reveals its Brazilian side - and never gives up. In 2019, the company announced the launch of Shoelace (in English, “shoelace”). With suggestions for tours and events among people with common tastes, the idea of ​​this ultra-millennial platform was to encourage offline meetings.
But the project did not go ahead. It was created in a Google project incubator, and ran for less than a year in New York before being discontinued in May. It happens. 

Rafael Battaglia-Brazil