The tech giant’s failed attempt at a social network is still causing the company headaches.
Google+ stopped being available for personal accounts more than two years ago. Still, even though many of us have all but forgotten that the platform ever existed, it continues to cause headaches for the tech and media giant.
Remnants of the platform remain live and have been breaking Google Phone app functionality for Android.
According to a recent Android Police report, pieces of the Google+ platform are still live and are causing problems for Google Phone app functionality for Android. The main issue was spotlighted in the Nearby Places feature of Google Phone. That feature is meant to make it easier for device users to be able to search for businesses close to where they are. Once they find a business they’re interested in, they can use the feature to find more information online, or to contact them using a phone number.
The problem is that for some reason, Google+ links are still being used for obtaining more information about nearby businesses. All requests are redirected to a page featuring information about the social network’s shutdown.
Google+ links are not used for other features relating to finding local businesses online.
Though the Nearby Places feature is still leaning on these crumbling Google+ links, Google Search is no longer using them. Instead, and appropriately so, those queries direct users right to the business websites.
While many people aren’t using their Nearby Places feature – likely because it is more natural for many people to simply use Google to conduct their searches for businesses – the Android Police report underscores how surprising it is that the tech giant doesn’t seem to have done anything to clear up this problem, particularly as it is far from a new problem. Moreover, the longer the company waits to do anything, the more the Google+ links will have deprecated.
Google Phone is a highly popular application. Even if the issue with the Google+ links impacts only a small percentage of overall users on a regular basis, it still affects enough people that it should be worth Google’s while to correct it, said the report. “It’s enough reason for Google to focus its energy on fixing what’s broken — instead 
of breaking what’s not,” it said, linking directly to another report it had previously made about an unnecessary YouTube resolution selector upgrade that it called “annoying.”
