14 DAY TRIAL // Right before 2013 ended, rumor had it that Google was planning to shut down Schemer, the tool that enabled people to share life goals and to discuss them with other people. In the meantime, the company has confirmed the news and attached a date to the shutdown.
According to the announcement, Schemer will be shutting down on February 7, 2014. By this date, users have time to download their data or it will get permanently deleted.
“Schemer launched in beta over a year ago to help inspire and motivate people to do more awesome stuff, and though it's shutting down, the adventures will continue. You can use the "Explore" section on Google Maps for Android and iOS to find interesting things to do around you, or Field Trip to uncover hidden or unique things in your city, among others,” Google writes.
Google has made it fairly easy to get your data from Schemer. All you need to do is sign in to the site with your Google account, select the “Email me my schemes” option from the top of the page and get your data delivered to your Gmail within 24 hours. The messages will contain two attachments of the same data package in two different formats: CSV and HTML.
Google Schemer didn’t have a long shelf life. It was launched two years ago as an invite-only service that sought to get people motivated to accomplish their goals. While the service had quite a few users, it didn’t quite lift off as other Google tools and the company didn’t really bother promoting it that much.
Schemer later received mobile apps for Android and iOS and the invitation requirement was nixed. It was rather obvious that the service would soon get shut down, especially since the last time the Android app got an update was back on October 9, 2012.