Google Plus | Geek Tips 'n' Tricks

How to quickly and safely remove your Google+ account

Recently, a Wall Street Journal posted an article claiming that Google accidentaly exposed private information of hundreds of thousands Google+ users over the course of last three years. Google found out about the security breach in March 2018 and quickly fixed the bug, but they kept silent about the issue.

Google+ was created back in 2011 as a social media network that should challenge Facebook and Twitter but never managed to grab any bigger attention. Many of Google or Gmail users don’t even know they have their Google+ account and their Google+ page since these are probably given by default. Some probably tried using once or twice and that’s about it but alot of users never actually used Google+ (including me).

Google is now thinking of shutting the service down but the exact date when the service will stop to work and exist is still unknown.

How to check if you have Google+ account?

Here’s a simple way how to determine if you have Google+ account: go to Gmail and at the right side of the screen click on icon next to a bell (probably with your picture/avatar) and you’ll see a window like this with a link to your Google+ profile.

How to check if you already have Google+ account?

How to close your Google+ page and with all data stored?

Apparently, sooner or later, Google+ will stop to exist. If you don’t use it and don’t plan to use it you can simply remove your Google+ account by following these simple instructions.

Clicking on that Google+ Profile link like on a picture above will take you to your Google+ page. If you haven’t used it at all, it should look like this.
Typical Google+ page
Here are a simple steps that will safely remove your Google+ page. While on your Google+ page, click Settings (as shown on the image above). Then on the settings page scroll all the way down to the and of the page and there you’ll have Delete your Google+ profile link:
Scroll down and find Delete your Google+ Profile link
Clicking on that link will ask you once again to login to your Google account to confirm your identity and after a login you’ll see a page like this:
Confirm the removal your Google+ profile
This page will contain all the information you need to know about removing your Google+ profile so read it carefully. If you agree with everything written there tick these two boxes and click Delete. Note that deleting of your Google+ profile can’t be undone so once you delete it – it’s gone for good! Also, removing your Google+ profile has nothing to do with your Google or Gmail account. These are totally different things and it won’t affect your Google or Gmail account.
Once you have pressed the Delete button your Google+ account is gone! The page that follows is an optional survey where you can leave a feedback about why have you decided to remove your Google+ account.

Optional survey about reasons for deleting Google+ account

If you have followed the instructions above you now no longer have a Google+ account. Go back to your Gmail, give it a refresh and you’ll be able to see that your Google+ Profile link is now gone: