Google Is Removing Its Chat Option From Business Listings
Googleâs announced that it will be shutting down the chat and call history features on Google Business Profiles in July, as it moves to streamline its business tools.
âThe what?â I hear you ask.
Yeah, itâs not a highly used element of the Google Business offering, but right now, users of Google Search, Maps and Shopping can get in touch with your business direct from the in-stream listings, by initiating a chat from the display.
Google Business chat is an optional element of your Google Business profile, which you need to specifically activate and/or deactivate for each Google platform, with an important proviso being that businesses have to reply to any messages within 24 hours.
That provides another, simple way for users to make contact, and could, at least in theory, help you generate more leads from your Google listings.
But evidently, it hasnât proven popular.
Iâd hazard a guess that the 24-hour time limit is one impediment, while itâs also quite possible that a lot of business owners didnât know that it existed. But either way, itâs not seeing enough take-up to keep supporting it, so Googleâs retiring the option as of July 31st, 2024.
As reported by Search Engine Land:
âGoogle will stop allowing new chats to be initiated starting on July 15, 2024 and then will totally disable the chat and call history features on July 31, 2024. You can download your chat and call history from Google Business Profiles, so you can store them somewhere. At some point, Google will delete the history.â
Again, itâs not a major element, so the impact wonât be significant. But if you have been using this feature, itâs worth noting that itâs going away, and that users will no longer be able to initiate a chat from Google surfaces.