Send messages directly to businesses

You can communicate directly with businesses through their Business Profiles on Google Maps or Google Search.

What happens when you send a message to the business:

• The business may see your name and profile picture as it appears on your About me page.
• A business could have multiple owners or representatives who may see your messages, so you could get responses from different employees.
• You decide what to share with businesses that you chat with. Think carefully before you share sensitive information, including:
  • Credit card numbers
  • Banking information
  • Social Security, passport, or other government identification numbers
  • Passwords and other sign-in information
  • Health records
  • Any private or personal information that you do not want multiple people at the business to have

Tip: For the "Chat" button to show up on a Business Profile, the business must have messaging turned on.

Manage your conversations with businesses

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Maps app .
2. Tap Explore   select a category like Restaurants or Bars. To find more categories, like Services or Shopping, tap More .
3. Select a business. If it has messaging turned on, on their Business Profile, tap Chat. Not all businesses can send and receive messages.
   • Find other businesses to message by with the search bar in Google Maps.
4. Type your message and tap send . Responses from the business show up in the message thread.
5. To check your messages in Google Maps, tap Updates   Messages. New messages have a red dot on the icon.
6. To block messages from a business or report a business, open a conversation  tap More  Block/report spam.
   • You can block the conversation or block the conversation and report it as spam.

Turn message read receipts on or off

When you have read receipts turned on and open a new message, the business that messaged you gets a “Read” status under the message. The recipient of the message must have read receipts turned on for the sender of the message to get a "Read" status.

For example, if a business has read receipts turned on and you send them a message, you can tell when they read your messages. If they turn off read receipts, the “Read” status won’t show up for you.

Read receipts are automatically turned on for you. If you turn off read receipts, businesses no longer get the “Read” status when you open their messages.

To turn read receipts on or off in Google Maps:

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Maps app .
2. From the “Updates” tab, tap More Manage messages Messages.
3. Turn on or off Read receipts.

Delete your conversations with businesses

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Maps app .
2. At the bottom, tap Updates  Messages.
3. Tap the business you have messaged.
4. At the top right, tap More   Delete.
5. To confirm, tap Delete.

Tip: When you delete a conversation, it only deletes your copy of the conversation from your device. The business may continue to have the conversation on their device and respond to you.

Backup your conversations with businesses

Important: Conversations are saved to your Google Account. 

• You can find your conversations on any device linked to your account. 
• If you delete a conversation from one device, it’s permanently removed from all linked devices. You can no longer access them. Keep in mind this does not delete the recipient's copy.
• You can export and download conversations to keep for your records or use in other Google products.

Change your language

When you send a message to a business, we share the language of your device with them so they can respond in your preferred language when possible. We don't share your language preference with them until you send a message.

You can change your language preferences in your device settings. Language changes may take up to 24 hours to take effect.

Important: When you change your phone's language settings, it changes the language of all apps on your phone.

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Settings app .
2. Tap General management  Language and input  Language.
3. Tap Add language and choose the language you want to add.
4. Tap Set as default. The top language in your list is used as your default language.

Learn more about Business Messages

To exchange messages directly with businesses, click the Chat button on Search, Maps, and third party websites. Business Messages collects certain information from you to exchange messages. Some of this functionality uses Google Play services.

When you message a business through Business Messages:

• Your name and profile photo are shared with that business.
• Messages that you compose and photos that you choose to send are sent to that business, saved with cloud storage, and synced across your devices.
• Google collects your email address for account management, but we don't share your email address with businesses you have messaged.
• We share the language of your device with the business so they can respond in your preferred language.
• To improve our services and address issues, Business Messages collects your usage information, crash logs, and diagnostics.

Tip: Messages you send with your Google Account are stored and encrypted with Google Cloud.