Deprecations and shut down features

The Google Cloud Platform Terms of Service (section 1.4(d), "Discontinuation of Services") defines the deprecation policy that applies to Cloud Domains. The deprecation policy only applies to the services, features, or products listed therein.

After a service, feature, or product is officially deprecated, it continues to be available for at least the period of time defined in the Terms of Service. After this period of time, the service is scheduled for shutdown.

Feature Deprecation date Shutdown date Details
Google Domains as a Domain Name System (DNS) provider October 19, 2023 Google Domains as your Domain Name System (DNS) provider for your domains in Cloud Domains is retired, and some DNS features from Cloud Domains aren't supported.
  1. New domain registrations cannot use the free DNS zone provided by Google Domains
  2. You can continue to use the existing domains names that use Google Domains as the DNS provider
  3. You can continue to use the Google Domains user interface to update the DNS settings until the domains are migrated to Squarespace
Domain forwarding (HTTP `301` and `302` response status codes) and email forwarding October 19, 2023 January 22, 2024 Until the domain is migrated to Squarespace, you can use the Google Domains user interface to configure this setting. After the domains are migrated, you can continue using domain and email forwarding. However, you won't be able to change your domain forwarding or email forwarding settings.
Dynamic DNS October 19, 2023 January 22, 2024 You can continue using the Google Domains user interface to configure this setting until the domain is migrated to Squarespace. Afterward, Dynamic DNS updates doesn't work, and your domain points to the last known IP address before the retirement.
Import domains October 19, 2023 January 22, 2024 You can't import your existing registered domain from Google Domains to Cloud Domains.
Export domains October 19, 2023 January 22, 2024 You can't export a registered domain from Cloud Domains to Google Domains.
Transfer domains October 19, 2023 January 22, 2024 You can't transfer a registered domain from a third-party domain registrar to Cloud Domains.
Contact privacy October 19, 2023 The PRIVATE_CONTACT_DATA setting for contact privacy is changed to REDACTED_CONTACT_DATA when a domain is migrated to Squarespace.

On September 7, 2023 Squarespace acquired all domain registrations and related customer accounts from Google Domains. After January 22, 2024, you can't use the retired features of Cloud Domains. For more information, see the Cloud Domains FAQ page.

Google Domains as your Domain Name System (DNS) provider for your domains in Cloud Domains is being retired. This change doesn't affect your domains that use Cloud DNS as your DNS provider.

The following features from Google Domains aren't supported in Cloud Domains:

  • Domain forwarding (HTTP 301 and 302 response status codes)
  • Email forwarding
  • Dynamic DNS

If your domain continues to use Google Domains DNS after Google Domains DNS is retired, your last Google Domains DNS settings work, but you can't make any changes to your DNS records until you change your DNS provider. Similarly, domain forwarding and email forwarding work according to the last supported configuration, but you can't change your domain forwarding or email forwarding settings. Dynamic DNS updates don't work, and your domain points to the last known IP address before the retirement.

Transfer-In of your domain registrations from third-party domain registrars into Cloud Domains isn't possible. You can transfer-out your domain registrations to third-party domain registrars.

In addition, import of domain registrations from Google Domains to Cloud Domains or export of domain registrations from Cloud Domains to Google Domains isn't possible. You also can't move domain registrations with Cloud Domains between your Google Cloud projects.

You can't delete a domain registration resource in Cloud Domains until it has expired. However, you can disable auto-renewal of domain registrations in Cloud Domains by using Cloud Domains registration resource management settings.

Domains that use the PRIVATE_CONTACT_DATA setting for contact privacy are changed to use REDACTED_CONTACT_DATA. Your data is not shared with a third-party contact privacy provider, and it is instead shown as redacted in public contact databases like WHOIS.

Also, you can't use the Google Domains user interface to view and manage your domain registrations after your domain is migrated to Squarespace. You can continue to use the Google Cloud CLI, Cloud Domains, and the Google Cloud console to manage your domains.