Google reversed its requirement to have a Google+ account to share content, communicate with other people or create a YouTube channel last Monday. Instead, people will be able to use their general Google accounts to access everything, the company said.

The Google+ change will eventually apply to all of Google's services, but the company is starting with YouTube, which has become one of Google's most important services as it looks to future revenue streams.

Bradley Horowitz, head of Google's newly-created Photos, Streams and Sharing division, said in a blog post that Google+ will soon stand on its own.

According to Quartz, the social network will still be around for the foreseeable future, at least, but it won't be required to use other Google services.

Google had once intended to cut down on YouTube trolling-and drive sign-ups for Google+ from its popular sister-site-by forcing commenters to use their real names by signing up for a Google+ account. The company, however, abandoned that policy in 2014.

"While we got certain things right, we made a few choices that, in hindsight, we've needed to rethink," Horowitz wrote.

According to CNET, the change is a stark contrast from the company's position in 2013, when it started requiring people to use Google+ accounts to do mostly everything Google-related, including using Gmail to YouTube. The policy was a hard sell to get people to use the embattled social network, which reportedly came right from Chief Executive Larry Page.

But since then, Google has softened its push. In May, the company announced Google Photos, which split up Google+ Photos from the rest of the network. Carving out the service, which was by far the most well-received feature of the social network, raised several questions about Google+'s future.

For his part, Horowitz stressed last May that the social network wasn't dying, but that the service "will be changing."

Instead of being an all-encompassing product, Bradley said the social network has a new mission: to connect people based on shared interests.