The Google Play Store will not require you to have a Google+ account to write reviews anymore.
In an email to TechCrunch, Google confirmed the news that “a G+ profile is no longer needed to post a review.” Rumors that the change was happening were first reported by Android Police, which quoted several tips from its readers.
As of today, the roll out appears to be continuing. We’ve tried to leave a book review by visiting Play Store via laptop and the system required us to create a Google+ profile. However, other people successfully posted app reviews by using an Android phone without having a Google+ account.
The removal of the Google+ profile requirement is part of ongoing changes with Google+ across many Google products, which started last year. The first major move was disconnecting Google+ from YouTube’s comments.
“People have told us that accessing all of their Google stuff with one account makes life a whole lot easier,” Google VP of Streams, Photos and Sharing Bradley Horowitz wrote in a blog post. “But we’ve also heard that it doesn’t make sense for your Google+ profile to be your identity in all the other Google products you use.”
Google+, which just turned five years old, has been called “walking dead” after Vic Gundotra announced he would be leaving the company (and his primary project, Google+) after eight years.
