Your customers can get in touch with you in real-time from your Business Profile on Google. You can answer questions, tell your story, and attract more customers to your business. Messaging works best as a conversation between your business and your customers. To ensure the best experience for your customers, follow the messaging guidelines.
How it works
Once you turn on messaging, customers will find a "Message" button on your Business Profile, and be able to message you at any time.
- Messages will appear in your Business Profile on Google. You’ll receive notifications for incoming messages.
- You can customize the automated welcome message that customers will get when they message you.
- You can share photos with your customers through messages.
- If multiple people own or manage your Business Profile, each one can message with customers.
- Customers may find your name and profile photo from your About me page.
If you're interested in the messaging API, please visit the Business Messages developer site.
Stored messages
Businesses who turn on messaging have their messages saved to the account they use to manage their Business Profile on Google My Business:
- If you delete a message from one device, it’s permanently removed from all linked devices. You can no longer access them.
- Important: The message is deleted from only your devices. The recipient can still find the conversation on their devices.
- You can export and download messages to keep for your records or use in other Google products.
Manage messages on Google My Business
Turn on or off messaging- On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google My Business app
.
- If you have multiple locations, open the location you'd like to manage.
- To turn on or off messaging:
- Turn on: Tap Customers
Messages
Turn on.
- Turn off: Tap More
Settings
Messages. Then turn off Turn on messages. You can turn on messaging again at any time.
- Turn on: Tap Customers
Notifications let you know when customers contact you, which is helpful to maintain your 24 hour response time requirement. If you turn off app notifications, you'll turn off all notifications, including messaging.
- On your Android phone or tablet, open your phone’s settings.
- Tap Apps & notifications
Notifications.
- Under "Recently sent," turn on or off the Google My Business app.
- If you can't find the Google My Business app, tap See all from last 7 days.
- On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google My Business app
.
- If you have multiple locations, open the location you'd like to manage.
- Tap Customers
Messages.
- Open the conversation you want to block.
- Tap More
Block/report spam. The conversation will be blocked and you'll no longer receive messages from the customer.
- On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google My Business app
.
- If you have multiple locations, open the location you'd like to manage.
- Tap Customers
Messages.
- Open the conversation you want to delete.
- Tap More
Delete. The conversation will be deleted from your device (but won't be deleted from the customer's device).
You can share photos of any size or format. There’s no limit to how many photos you can share at once.
- On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google My Business app
.
- If you have multiple locations, open the location you'd like to manage.
- Tap Customers
Messages.
- Open the conversation you want to share photos in.
- Tap Photo
.
- Choose a photo or take a new one.
- Tap Share
.
Manage messages on Google Maps
Turn on or off messaging in Google MapsTo turn on or off messaging:
- On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Maps app
.
- Tap Updates
Messages
Business.
- Tap Settings
. Then, turn on or off Messaging.
- On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Maps app
.
- Tap Updates
Messages
Business.
- Merchants can manage individual inboxes for each business they own.
-
On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Maps app
.
-
Tap Updates
Messages
Business.
-
Merchants can manage individual inboxes for each business they own.
-
-
Open the conversation you want to delete.
-
Tap More
Delete. The conversation will be deleted from your device.
- On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Maps app
.
- Tap Account Circle
Settings
Notifications.
- Select "Your business."
- Turn on a notification: Next to the notification, turn on the switch.
- Turn off a notification: Next to the notification, turn off the switch.
- On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Maps app
.
- Tap Updates
Messages
Business.
- You can manage individual inboxes for each business you own.
- Open the conversation you want to block.
- Tap More
Block/Report spam. The conversation will be blocked, and you'll no longer receive messages from the customer.
You can share photos of any size or format. There’s no limit to how many photos you can share at once.
- On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Maps app
.
- Tap Updates
Messages
Business.
- You can manage individual inboxes for each business you own.
- Open the conversation you want to share photos in.
- Tap Photo
.
- Choose a photo or take a new one.
- Tap Share
.
Response time requirement
The following requirement is for any business that uses messaging on Google My Business.
When you receive a new message, you should reply within 24 hours. This may promote trust and encourage engagement with your business. To support timely responses, we may deactivate messaging for your business if you don’t respond within the time frame.
Find average response timeBusinesses can find and track their average response time in the app. You can get insights if you have messaging turned on in your Google My Business app.
These insights will display the average wait time for a message response using the last 28 days of data. You can choose a longer time period as well. You may be able to compare average response times for similar businesses nearby.
When customers search for your business on Google Search and Maps, they can get a status update for a messaging response time:
- Usually responds in a few minutes
- Usually responds in a few hours
- Usually responds in a day
- Usually responds in a few days.
Get your messaging insights
- On your mobile device, open the Google My Business app
.
- Tap Customers
Messages.
- At the top, you'll get your response time.
FAQ
What happens when messaging is enabled?- You’ll get notifications for incoming messages in Google My Business.
- You can customize the automated welcome message that customers get when they message you.
- If multiple people own or manage your Business Profile, each one can message with customers.
- Customers may find your name and profile photo from your About me page.
- If you’ve received fewer than 10 messages in the 28-day period, the response time will use your last 10 messages.
- If you’ve received fewer than 10 messages since signing up for messaging, the response time will use all the messages you’ve ever received.
- A response only counts when it's in reply to the first message of a conversation (that is, the first message you get after at least 7 days of no communication with a given customer).
- A response only counts if you send it within 24 hours.
- If you've received fewer than 10 messages in the 28-day period, the response rate will use your last 10 messages.
- If you've received fewer than 10 messages since signing up for messaging, the response rate will use all the messages you’ve ever received.