Google no longer requires a Google+ account with Gmail

Google no longer requires new Gmail users to sign up for Google+ when creating the account. The internet giant hoped with the obligation to recruit new users for its social network.

The changes to the Gmail account registration process have not been announced by Google, but appear to have been quietly implemented, WordStream notes. When creating a Gmail account, it is no longer mandatory to also activate the Google+ social network, but is now an option during the registration process.

Although Google+ is no longer required, users must have an account if they want to use various other Google services. For example, when writing reviews on various services and uploading videos to YouTube, it is still mandatory to register the Google account with Google+. It is unclear whether the company will continue to phase out the mandatory use of Google+ in the future.

Two years ago, Google changed the registration process for creating a Google account to make it mandatory to sign up with Google+. The internet giant did this to more quickly recruit new users for its relatively new social networking site at the time. Google+, however, has never known much popularity and earlier this year, development of the site was put on the back burner after the departure of CEO Vic Gundotra.