The move signals a major change in direction for the social network after it quietly reeled in the necessity of having a Google+ account to register Gmail in September.
Bradley Horowitz, vice president of Google Photos and Streams, said in a Google+ post on Sunday:
“I just wanted to confirm that the rumours are true - I’m excited to be running Google’s Photos and Streams products.
“It’s important to me that these changes are properly understood to be positive improvements to both our products and how they reach users.”
With the announcement, Horowitz stepped into the VP role previously held by David Besbris for almost a year.
Speaking at MWC today (Monday 2 March), Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of products at Google, said, according to the Verge: “For us, Google+ was always two things, a stream and a social layer.
“The stream has a passionate community of users, but the second goal was larger for us. We're at a point where things like photos and communications are very important, we're reorganising around that.”
Google last month acquired photo backup firm Odysee for an undisclosed sum in a move which may see it work on the spin-off ‘Photos’ app.