Google is relaxing its real-name requirement for Google+, announcing this week that users can now join the site using any nickname, alias, or smattering of letters they'd like.
When Google launched its social network three years ago, folks were required to use their given name, since Google wanted to build a community based on real people, not characters.
The rules were followed so closely, in fact, that beginning in the summer of 2011, users received warnings before their accounts were disabled for violations of the website's name policy.
But the Web giant has slowly backed down, over the years allowing Page owners to use nicknames and YouTube account holders to bring their usernames to Google+.
"Today, we are taking the last step: there are no more restrictions on what name you can use," the company wrote in a Tuesday announcement.
There is a catch, however. According to the Google+ Help page, users get a limited number of name changes, and may need to wait up to three months to tweak it again.
This move transforms Google+ from a Facebook-like format into something more akin to Twitter, where people can get creative with their personal brand.
"We know you've been calling for this change for a while," Google said. "We know that our names policy has been unclear, and this has led to some unnecessarily difficult experiences for some of our users. For this we apologize, and we hope that today's change is a step toward making Google+ the welcoming and inclusive space that we want it to be."
Less popular than its competitors, Google's social network continues to make headlines, most notably in November, when YouTube rolled out Google+-powered comments, which resulted in some very viral backlash.
More recently, Google+ added a profile view counter (located just below your account profile photo), as well as iOS support for auto-generated Stories and photo editing tools.
For more, see PCMag's review of Google+ and the slideshow above.