Google has a new social networking app, but it is no Facebook competitor

Google+, which was shut down in April, may have been the Internet search giant’s most popular (albeit ill-fated) stab at creating a social network, but it wasn’t the first. Technically, it was the fourth—following in the footsteps of such mishaps as Google Buzz, Google Friend Connect, and Orkut (yes, that was a thing in India and Brazil)—and Google+ aimed for the stars, but never quite managed to catch up to the hopes of its creators.
The new endeavor is called Shoelace and comes from Google’s in-house incubator, Area 120. Shoelace is a hyperlocal app for organizing events and activities, called “Loops”, which makes it similar to Facebook Events. It is currently being tested exclusively in New York, but if it proves successful, a wider roll-out could be in the cards.
Unlike Facebook and Google+, Shoelace is aimed at organizing and managing local events and finding new people who may be interested in them. In this sense, it is a bit like Tinder, in that it tries to match you with people with similar interests, and help you organize events around those interests.
Shoelace is currently invite-only and is being tested in NYC. There is no web version, while the app is available on Android 8.0 and up, and iOS 11 and up.