How to read and 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.

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 customise 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 that 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 chat on or off 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. Go to your Business Profile. Learn how to find your profile.
2. Click Messages.
3. Click Menu Chat 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. Go to your Business Profile. Learn how to find your profile.
2. Click Messages.
   • Businesses can manage individual inboxes for each business that they own.

Turn message read receipts on or off

If a recipient opens a new message, the sender gets a 'Read' status. If you turn off read receipts, your customers don't get the 'Read' status.

If you turn on messaging, read receipts automatically turn on.

To turn read receipts off in Google Search:

1. Go to your Business Profile. Learn how to find your profile.
2. Click Messages.
3. Click More Chat settings.
4. Turn off Send read receipts.

Delete your messages in Search

1. Go to your Business Profile. Learn how to find your profile.
2. Click Messages.
3. Open the conversation that you want to delete.
4. Click Delete .

Manage notifications in Search

1. Go to your Business Profile. Learn how to find your profile.
2. Click Menu Notifications.
3. Under Email Notifications, turn on or off Customer messages.
   Tip: For some users, SMS notifications may also be available. To receive SMS notifications, you must include your phone number.

Block a conversation in Search

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

1. Go to your Business Profile. Learn how to find your profile.
2. Click Messages.
3. Open the conversation that you want to block.
   Tip: If you would like to report a message as spam, tick the box.
4. Click Block .

Report spam

1. Go to your Business Profile. Learn how to find your profile.
2. Click Messages.
3. Open the conversation that you want to report as spam.
4. At the top right, click Block .
5. Next to 'Report spam', tick the box.
6. Click Block .

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. Go to your Business Profile. Learn how to find your profile.
2. Click Messages.
3. Open the conversation that 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.

Welcome messages in Search

Once a client contacts your business, a Welcome message is automatically sent. This greeting sets the customer's expectations for your response.

To add a welcome message:

1. Go to your Business Profile. Learn how to find your profile.
2. Click Messages.
3. Click Menu Chat settings.
4. Next to 'Welcome message', click Edit .
5. Edit your Welcome message.
6. Click Save.

Set up Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Frequently Asked Questions is a feature that creates automated responses to common questions that users may ask about your business. There are two types of FAQs that you can use:

Custom FAQs

• These are questions and answers that you create which can be specific to your business.

Automatic FAQs

• These are Google generated questions and answers based on information on your Business Profile. Automatic FAQs can currently answer questions about these features:
  • Opening hours
  • Appointments
  • Contact info
  • Delivery info
  • Location or address
  • Accepted forms of payment
  • Your website URL

Tip: You can choose to use Custom FAQs, Automatic FAQs or both. You’ll get a notification for any automatic responses that are sent with the user’s profile photo and a copy of the automatic response.

To add Custom FAQs:

1. Go to your Business Profile. Learn how to find your profile.
2. Tap Messages.
3. Tap Menu Chat settings
4. Tap Add FAQs Custom FAQs.
5. Add the question and the automated response.
6. Tap Save.

To turn on Automatic FAQs:

1. Go to your Business Profile. Learn how to find your profile.
2. Tap Messages.
3. Tap Menu Chat settings
4. Tap Add FAQs Automatic FAQs.
5. Turn on Automatic FAQs.

Tip: If Automatic FAQs provide incorrect answers to users, check that the info in your Business Profile is up to date and consistent.

Manage away mode

Important: This feature is currently available to some users. It will roll out to all users soon.

You can set up an automatic message response to let customers know that you’re unavailable. If you only respond to messages during opening hours, you can schedule an away message to be sent outside those hours.

Manage automatic away messages

1. Go to your Business Profile. Learn how to find your profile.
2. In the Business Profile you want to manage, click View profile Messages.
3. In the top right, click More Chat settings.
4. In the box that opens, click Manage away mode Edit automatic away message.
5. Enter your away message and click Save.

Snooze new message notifications while away

1. Go to your Business Profile. Learn how to find your profile.
2. In the Business Profile you want to manage, click View profile Messages.
3. In the top right, click More Chat settings.
4. In the box that opens, click Manage away mode.
5. Turn on Snooze notifications when away.

Schedule away mode

1. Go to your Business Profile. Learn how to find your profile.
2. In the Business Profile you want to manage, click View profile Messages.
3. In the top right, click More Chat settings.
4. In the box that opens, click Manage away mode Schedule.
5. Set times for your business to send away messages.

Respond promptly

The following requirement is for any business that uses messages on their Business Profile.

You must reply to your messages within 24 hours. It can promote trust and encourage engagement. If you don’t respond within the time frame, we deactivate chat for your business.

Find average response time

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

These insights show average response times using the last 28 days of data. You can choose a longer time period and compare waiting times for similar businesses nearby.

If customers search for your business, they can get a status update for a message 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'

Learn more about changes to your Insights data.

FAQs

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 customise 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 that they 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 that you 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 that 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 that you’ve ever received.

How is response rate calculated?

Your response rate is the percentage of new messages that 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 that you get after at least seven 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 that 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 that you've marked as spam aren't used in the calculation of response time and response rate.

Are there any limitations when setting up the FAQs messages?

• You can set up 10 messages.
• Questions can be maximum 60 characters.
• Answers can be maximum 500 characters and can include links.