Google+ Removed from Another Google Product: Play Store
posted Monday Aug 15, 2016 by Scott Ertz
The battle for Google+'s soul is quickly drawing to a close and Google has lost. After force-implementing the beleaguered social network into YouTube, Google Play and other company-owned platforms in an attempt to get people to care, the company has been going back the other direction.
You no longer need a Google+ account to comment on YouTube, but can keep your profiles connected. Google Photos has been pulled from Google+ entirely. Even Hangouts on Air is being moved out of the network and into YouTube Live. This week, one of the last remaining holdouts, Google Play, has seen the end of its Google+ integration as well.
No longer will there be a +1 button on a product listing, nor will you be required to have a Google+ account to post a review, but instead would be tied to your existing Google account, which is required to interact with the store in any meaningful way anyway.
This may not be the end of Google+ entirely, but it certainly is the end of forcing users of other Google-owned products to sign-up for the unwanted network in an attempt to either trick them into using the service, or to make the numbers look more impressive for either advertisers or investors. Personally, I will be glad to have one less network to try and manage.
