Revolgy blog

Welcome to the world Google Currents, bye Google+

Written by Barbora Kalousková | July 9, 2020

Google is definitely shutting down Google+ and coming up with its replacement - Google Currents. You might find it odd, that Google is still trying to come up with a new social network.

Especially since Google+ never became a thing. Some of your younger colleagues may not even know what it was, and some older colleagues would say “No one ever used Google+ anyway.”

If you look at Google+ from the perspective of the end-user, you'll be correct. You'll see a social network only a few geeks used to use a long time ago. Google didn't design Currents to be just another social network. Its purpose is different.

Google Currents was made especially for businesses. You might be asking yourself “Why do we need a company social network when we have plenty of others we are already using?”

Here is why.

5 reasons why to use Currents at work instead of other social media

No risk of the leakage of sensitive company information

You definitely do not want your colleagues to make obscure Facebook groups for sharing sensitive work-related information, right? Social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and others were designed to be used in your personal life (I'm not talking about company profiles on those platforms here, as these are a different category). Many experts say it is actually much better for your mental well-being to make a clear distinction between your personal and professional space - even though it is not an easy thing to do during the worldwide pandemic where many of us work from home. The same should be applied to social media.

A single source of truth. Finally!

Every work-related information that is meant to be seen by everyone will be in Currents. You will no longer have to look for it everywhere else. Plus - If you and your colleagues properly use tags and mentions you can easily sort and quickly find every information related to the topic you are working on.

Everyone in one place

As I said before, the whole company will be communicating in one place and everyone would be reachable there. Everyone can still share pictures and videos of cute cats, memes, photos or whatever they want without the need of creating a special Facebook group.

Tags, streams, mentions

Google Currents works the same way as other social media. You can create special streams or tags and mention your colleagues (by using “+name”).

Streams allow you to scan, explore, and engage with relevant company news. You will find them in the Currents Main menu. You can set up custom streams to raise the visibility of certain types of content or to target content to specific users. These streams can pull content from sources such as communities, user profiles, and tags. They can also be short-term or long-term.

Common use cases for creating streams:

  • Announcement corner for leadership, company-wide or regional communications, or human resources teams.

  • Space for new hires to introduce themselves.

  • Help desk or space for employees to ask questions and get tips from colleagues.

  • Company culture focused campaigns

Tags are a quick way to explore, follow, and categorize content for topics you’re interested in.

Any user can create a new tag whenever they post or comment using #.
E.g: #remotework #GSuiteTips #cloud-native

You already have it in your G Suite account

If you are already using G Suite you can start working with Google Currents immediately. No installation needed.

F.A.Q.s

Can I interact with people outside of my organization?

Yes, you can interact with people outside of the organization through private communities that are external to the company domain. Besides that, all G Suite users have access to Currents, if permitted by their G Suite administrator.

How do I manage and moderate the use of Currents?

G Suite administrators can manage settings for their domain in the admin console. Content managers can manage and moderate content and featured settings.

How much does it cost?

Currents are available to all G Suite users and included in the price of the subscription.

What happens to our Google+ content?

If your domain uses Google+, you’ll be automatically switched to Currents. All of your organization’s existing Google+ content will automatically transfer to Currents.

Please note that starting July 6th, users will not be able to opt-out of Currents or revert back to Google+.

Do you have more questions?

Don't hesitate to contact us at ask@revolgy.com