Google+ Photos killed off to make way for new photos app, as social network heads to its death

The new standalone app offers most of the same features, plus new ones

Google+ Photos is being closed, in what could be the final sign that the mostly-quiet social network is shutting down.

The photos service was long one of the most useful parts of Google+, the search giant’s attempt at building a social network, since it offered clever editing tools and ways of sharing pictures with friends. But many of those feature have now been built into the standalone Google Photos, which does all the same — but adds even more clever artificial intelligence tools to help it recognise certain features of pictures.

“In an effort to ensure everyone has the best photos experience we can deliver, on August 1st we’ll start to shut down Google+ Photos -- initially on Android, and soon thereafter on the Web and iOS,” Google wrote in a post on the network.

Photos from the old service are easily imported into the new one. If users don’t make the switch, their pictures will be deleted from the service — but they can be easily exported before Google+ Photos is shut down entirely, using the Google Takeout tool.

Google has been slowly splitting off and shutting down features of Google+. Pictures was one of those high-profile products — but was split off into the new app at the Google I/O conference earlier this year.