Google has released a timeline for the impending shutdown of its failed social network, Google+. The bug-ridden platform has been facing lowered usage, security concerns, and competition from more established social media sites. Google announced they will officially shutdown Google+ on 2 April and will stop allowing active users to post or add pages starting as early as 4 February.

The site has struggled with slow traffic and spambots, and in 2017 a security flaw prompted Google+ leadership to plan a shut down for the consumer side of the site. After discovering the bug could affect more then 500,000 users, Google decided to close the consumer side by August 2019. However, they planned to still allow Google Suite business users access to private Google+ communities.

In late 2018, a more dangerous API bug was detected, potentially leaking data fields of more than 50m users to third-party apps. According to Google Suite VP David Thacker, this bug gave out private data to apps that had requested a person’s Google+ ID. Google has since released plans to create a newer and safer version of the Google+ experience.

“Given the challenges in creating and maintaining a successful Google+ that meets our consumer users’ expectations, we decided to sunset the consumer version of Google+. We’re committed to focusing on our enterprise efforts, and will be launching new features purpose-built for businesses”, Google said in a statement.