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Google’s Spaces app will shut down by April 17
Google, as well as most tech companies which rely on apps as their main software products, have a lot of ideas for potential great apps. However, not all make it past the drawing board and even fewer actually see a full official release. This is the case of Google’s Spaces app, which will be shut down by April 17th.
Last year was a productive period for Google’s app division, as it launched several apps like Allo, which grabbed the attention of many users, thanks to the integration of the company’s AI assistant. However, back in May 2016, Google also released an experimental group messaging app known as Spaces.
The Spaces app was meant to allow users to easily engage in multiple online conversations around specific topics like sports or news. The app was closely tethered with other Google products like its search engine and YouTube. However, ever since its release, the app has flown under the radar, unable to appeal to as many users as other new Google apps.
Therefore, it seems that Google has decided to shut down the Spaces app, in a similar fashion to all of the company’s previous apps and services which proved to be unpopular. The news about the Spaces’ fate came from John Kilcline, a product manager at Google, who stated that the company will take what they have learned for developing Spaces and apply it to some of their other products, without being too specific about which products he was talking about.
Spaces, which was more of a forum than a messaging app, was Google’s attempt at social networking. An attempt which may have come too late and without any amazing features to appeal to users, as other companies and apps already have an established user base.
Finally, Kilcline also revealed that the Spaces app will become read-only until it will be completely shut down on April 17. Many industry experts believe that Google Hangouts will soon share the fate of Spaces, as the service has run its course, and Google has already released its replacement known as Duo.
What do you think about Google’s decision to shut down unpopular apps like Spaces? Did you manage to try out the app when it was released?
Image source: Flickr
