Bradley Horowitz, the lead on Google's social network, Google+, made an appearance at the company's developer conference to tell the world that Google+ isn't going anywhere, but it's going through big changes.
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Horowitz explained he's currently in charge of Streams, Photos and Sharing at Google, and that Google+, as a service is being completely rethought. He also said there has been a "renaissance" of thinking behind the product and that it would be changing considerably in the coming months.
"Google+ is where people want to connect around their interests and passions," Horowitz said.
There were no specifics on the changes to come, although Horowitz noted that what he sees as one of the best features of the service -- it's vibrant and prolific communities around specific topics (such as photography) -- will be an emphasis.
Horowitz appeared to kick off a deeper dive into Google Photos, which is re-launching as a standalone service separate from Google+, offering free, unlimited storage for photos and videos to any user (for pics up to 16 megapixels and videos up to 1080p quality).
"It's not clear that personal photo management syncs with the mission ... of Google+. The concept of photo storage isn't the same as photo sharing. Google Photos is that private secure, safe place where all of my memories can live without compromise."