After more than a year in existence, Google Helpouts, Google's video lesson platform that connected users with experts in a variety of fields, will shut down on April 20th. In an official announcement on Google+, the company stated that the service hadn't "grown at the pace we had expected" so it's time to say a sad so long to the application and the community.

Helpouts was announced back in 2013 as a premier product for people looking for advice on anything from cooking to healthcare. Google launched the service on desktop and Android with a small set of partners, including Weight Watchers and Sephora, letting users access free videos from volunteers or pay $20 for official helpful videos from partners. Mountain View seemed bullish about the service's prospects at the time, with then-VP of Engineering Udi Manber comparing it to online shopping in terms of potential. Unfortunately, that potential was never realized.

Google says that users in the community can download their Helpouts history using Google Takeout starting on April 20th. Downloads will be available until November 1st.