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.
- On your computer, sign in to Google My Business.
- If you have multiple locations, open the location you want to manage.
- Click Messages
Settings
.
- Turn on or off Turn on messaging.
Notifications let you know when customers contact you, which is helpful to maintain your 24-hour response time requirement. If you turn off notifications, you'll turn off all notifications, including messaging.
- On your computer, sign in to Google My Business.
- If you have multiple locations, open the location you want to manage.
- Click Settings
.
- Under “Web notifications,” check or uncheck the box next to “Customer messages.”
- On your computer, sign in to Google My Business.
- If you have multiple locations, open the location you want to manage.
- Click Messages.
- Open the conversation you want to block.
- Click More
Block/report spam
Block.
The conversation is blocked, and you'll no longer receive messages from the customer.
- On your computer, sign in to Google My Business.
- If you have multiple locations, open the location you want to manage.
- Click Messages.
- Open the conversation you want to delete.
- Click More
Delete
Delete.
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.