How to read & reply to messages from your Business Profile

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. Chat works best as a conversation between your business and your customers. To ensure the best experience for your customers, follow the chat guidelines.

Important: As a COVID-19 precaution, we're operating with a limited team. It may take longer than usual to connect with us. We recommend our Help Community and YouTube Channel.

How it works

Once you turn on chat, customers will find a "Chat" button on your Business Profile and will 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 in the chat.
• If multiple people own or manage your Business Profile, each one can chat with customers.
• Customers will find your Business Name in the chat dialogue.

If you're interested in the chat API, please visit the Business Messages developer site.

Stored messages

Businesses who turn on chat have their messages saved to the account they use to manage their Business Profile:

• 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 chat on Google Search

Turn on or off chat in Search

Important: Past chat history is unavailable for businesses when they set up chat for the first time. Subsequent messages to and from the business are recorded after initial setup.

1. In Google Search, search for "my business."
2. Click Customers Messages.
3. Click Menu   Message settings.
4. Turn on or off Chat.

Find your messages in Search

Businesses that turn on chat can manage the chat feature from Search.

1. In Google Search, search for "my business."
2. Click Customers Messages.
   • Businesses can manage individual inboxes for each business they own.

Turn message read receipts on or off

After a recipient opens a new message, the sender gets a “Read” status under the message. This status appears for whoever sent the message in a conversation, either you or your customer. If read receipts are turned off for your business, your customers will not get the “Read” status.

If you have messaging turned on, read receipts are sent automatically. You can turn read receipts on or off in Google Search or Maps.

To turn read receipts off in Google Search:

1. In Google Search, search for "my business."
2. Click Customers Messages.
3. Click More Message settings.
4. Turn off Read receipts.

Delete your messages in Search

1. In Google Search, search for "my business."
2. Click Customers Messages.
3. Open the conversation you want to delete.
4. Click Delete .

Manage notifications in Search

1. In Google Search, search for "my business."
2. Click   Notifications.
3. Turn on or off Customer messages.

Block a conversation in Search

1. In Google Search, search for "my business."
2. Click Customers Messages
3. Open the conversation you want to block.
4. Click Block .

When the conversation is blocked, you no longer receive messages from the customer.

Share photos in Search

You can share photos of any size or format. There’s no limit to how many photos you can share at once.

1. In Google Search, search for "my business."
2. Click Customers Messages.
3. Open the conversation you want to share photos in.
4. Click Photo .
5. Choose a photo.
6. Click Share .

Tip: You can delete photos through the thumbnails menu.

Set up Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

To enable FAQ:

1. In Google Search, search for "my business."
2. Click Customers  Messages.
3. Click Menu   Message settings  Manage frequently asked questions.
4. Click Add a question.

Respond promptly (time requirement)

Any business that uses chat on their Business Profile should reply to new messages within 24 hours. This may promote trust and encourage engagement with your business. To support timely responses, we may deactivate chat for your business if you don’t respond within the time frame.

Find average response time

Businesses can find and track their average response time in the app. You can get insights if you have chat turned on in your Google Maps app.

These insights will display the average wait time for a chat 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 one of the following chat response statuses:

• "Usually responds in a few minutes"
• "Usually responds in a few hours"
• "Usually responds in a day"
• "Usually responds in a few days"

Learn more about changes to your Insights data.

FAQ

What happens when chat is enabled?

When you have chat turned on, customers can message you at any time through the "Chat" button on your Business Profile on Google. If you enable chat for your business, you may also get a "Get quote" or “Request a booking” button in selected categories on your Business Profile on Search.

• You’ll get notifications for incoming messages in Google Business Profile. 
• 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 will find your Business Name in the chat dialogue.

How do I keep the chat button active on Google?

All Business Profile chat users should make sure to respond to messages within 24 hours of receiving one. If you don’t respond to your messages within a day, then to preserve the customer experience, we may remove the "Chat" button from your Business Profile. If the message is spam or of poor quality, make sure to mark it as spam.

How is response time calculated?

Your response time is calculated by the average amount of time it takes your business to reply to new messages from customers, based on the messages you've received in the last 28 days.

• 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 chat, the response time will use all the messages you’ve ever received.

How is response rate calculated?

Your response rate is the percentage of new messages you responded to in the last 28 days.

• 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 chat, the response rate will use all the messages you’ve ever received.

My chat has been deactivated. How do I reactivate it?

If you lose access to your chat button, you can turn on chat again. To keep the chat button active, you should respond to all new messages in less than 24 hours. 

Are there any messages not used to calculate response time and rate?

Yes. Welcome messages and messages you've marked as spam aren't used in the calculation of response time and response rate.

Are there any limitations in the FAQs that can be set up in messaging?

You are able to set up 10 messages. Questions can be max of 40 characters. Answers can be max of 500 characters and can include links.