---
title: "AI Messaging in Google Business Profile: What to Fix First"
description: "Google is rolling out AI-powered messaging in Business Profile: an agent answers customers from Search and Maps using what is on your profile. Here is what to check before turning it on."
date: 2026-10-29T00:00:00.000Z
---
**AI-powered messaging in Google Business Profile** is a feature where an AI agent answers, on its own and at no cost, the questions customers send your business from Google Search and Google Maps. The customer writes from their phone's own messaging app, the agent replies instantly and hands the conversation to you when it does not know the answer. According to [Search Engine Roundtable](https://www.seroundtable.com/google-business-profiles-ai-powered-messaging-42419.html), on October 29, 2026 Google started opening the feature to more businesses.

The point that decides whether this helps or hurts is simple: the agent only knows what is on your profile. Menu, hours and services stop being a shop window and become the knowledge base for customer service. An outdated profile no longer just loses a click. It gives the customer a wrong answer, in your name.

## How does the Business Profile messaging agent work?

The Business Profile messaging agent talks to the customer inside their phone's native texting app, not in a Google chat window. Based on Google's description on the activation screen, quoted by [Search Engine Roundtable](https://www.seroundtable.com/google-business-profiles-ai-powered-messaging-42419.html), the flow is:

1. The customer finds the business on Search or Maps and taps to message.
2. The conversation opens in their phone's messaging app.
3. The AI agent answers routine questions "instantly and at no cost".
4. Anything it cannot answer is handed to the business, which can take over any conversation at any time.
5. All messages are kept in the Business Profile.

In Google's own example, for a restaurant, the agent shows menu items with photos and prices and offers open reservation times. The wider rollout was first spotted by Claudia Tomina, who posted a GIF of the feature in action on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7521599376218132480/). The sign in the dashboard, she says, is a red dot on "Messages".

## Why did the profile become the knowledge base for customer service?

The profile became the knowledge base because that is where the agent gets its answers. Claudia Tomina put it in one sentence that covers the whole story: "The agent can only answer as well as your profile does." Her advice is to update menu, hours and services before turning the feature on.

Until now, a wrong detail in a Business Profile cost you quietly. The customer saw "open until 10 pm", showed up at 9:30, found the door locked and left annoyed. Bad, but at least the information was out in the open, where anyone could check it.

With the agent, the same mistake becomes a conversation. The customer asks "can I book for Saturday at 9 pm?" and gets a confident "yes" from an assistant speaking on behalf of the business. When I worked in sales, I learned that a promise made at the counter becomes the store's debt, even if the owner never said it. The rule still holds when the counter is an AI.

## Who can turn on AI-powered messaging now?

AI-powered messaging is in a gradual rollout and still looks like a pilot. The email Mike Blumenthal shared on [X](https://x.com/mblumenthal/status/2115849528775791049) offers "early access to the AI-powered messaging pilot" at no cost and talks about "allowing your team to dedicate more time to running the restaurant", which suggests Google started with restaurants. Barry Schwartz, who covers the story at Search Engine Roundtable, says he has not seen the feature in his own profile yet.

The sources do not say which countries have the feature or when it reaches every category. If your dashboard shows no red dot on "Messages", it most likely has not reached you yet.

## What is RCS and why does it limit the agent?

RCS (Rich Communication Services) is the messaging standard replacing SMS, with support for images, buttons and cards, as long as the customer's carrier and phone support it. The AI agent **only works** under those conditions, as Claudia Tomina points out. For everyone else, the message goes straight to the business phone, and standard text rates may apply.

In practice, that creates two parallel support lines. Some customers talk to the AI; others land on your phone, unfiltered, expecting a human reply. Before turning it on, decide who answers that second group and how fast.

## Didn't this exist before?

It did, and Google switched it off. Business Profile chat stopped accepting new conversations on July 15, 2024 and was removed on July 31, 2024, along with the call history report, as [Search Engine Roundtable reported at the time](https://www.seroundtable.com/google-business-profile-call-history-chat-going-away-37465.html).

The comeback started clumsily. On June 26, 2026, a "Messages" button showed up in the Business Profile dashboard for a few hours and then disappeared, according to [Search Engine Roundtable](https://www.seroundtable.com/google-business-profiles-message-button-41575.html). The section carried the heading "Handled by your AI agent". Muhammad Hussain, who spotted it, described the pilot as an automated conversational AI agent, and Barry Schwartz noted it was not the FAQ-based automated responses Google had launched earlier.

I have followed Business Profile since it was called Google My Business, and the pattern repeats: Google launches, removes, comes back under another name. The difference this time is that you are no longer the one answering.

## What should you check on your profile before turning on the agent?

Check everything a customer would ask by message, because that is exactly what the agent will try to answer. Field by field:

| Profile field | What to check | What goes wrong if it is stale |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Opening hours | Regular hours and special holiday hours | The agent confirms a visit when the door is locked |
| Menu or products | Discontinued items, current prices, current photos | The customer arrives wanting a dish you no longer serve |
| Services | Full list, including what you **don't** do | The agent leaves the door open to a service you turn down |
| Reservations and booking | Working link and booking system | A reservation offered that nobody receives |
| Attributes | Delivery, pickup, accessibility, parking | A "yes" for something the place does not have |
| Phone number | A number someone answers and reads texts on | Conversations handed off by the AI land on a dead line |

Two checks outside the profile complete the list. First, make sure your website and profile say the same thing about hours, prices and services: conflicting information between the two is the kind of inconsistency that already hurts local SEO, and [Schema.org for service businesses](/en/blog/o-poder-do-schema-org-para-empresas-de-servicos-um-guia-completo-para-o-seo-local/) helps tie them together. Second, list the ten questions your phone gets most often. If any answer is missing from the profile, the agent will hand it off or, worse, improvise. The work of [turning real questions into structured FAQs](/en/blog/criacao-de-faqs-programadas-com-dados-estruturados-json-ld-um-guia-completo-para-seo-na-era-da-ia/) pays off here too.

## How do you tell whether the agent is helping or hurting?

Track it through the conversations, which are all kept in the Business Profile. In the first weeks, read a sample of conversations and look for three things: wrong answers, questions the agent handed off and customers who dropped out halfway. Every handed-off question is a field missing from your profile.

The sources do not say whether Google will show messaging metrics in the dashboard. Until that is clear, treat a message as a local SEO conversion, next to calls and direction requests, as I describe in the guide on [tracking rankings, conversions and calls in local SEO](/en/blog/sucesso-em-seo-local-como-acompanhar-rankings-conversoes-e-chamadas/). If calls drop and bookings don't, the agent is doing its job. If complaints go up, the problem is almost always a profile field.

## Summary: what to know about AI messaging in Business Profile

- **AI-powered messaging in Google Business Profile** lets an agent answer customers coming from Search and Maps, through their phone's messaging app, at no cost.
- The agent answers routine questions and hands the business what it cannot answer; the business can take over any conversation at any time.
- The feature **only works with RCS**; customers without support text the business phone directly.
- The rollout is gradual and pilot-like, starting with restaurants, with no confirmed countries.
- Native profile chat was shut down on July 31, 2024; the AI agent is the return of messaging, now without you on the front line.
- The agent answers only as well as the profile is filled in, which turns hours, menu and services into a knowledge base.

What to do now: open your Business Profile dashboard and look for the red dot on "Messages". Whether it is there or not, use the table above and fix the profile today, because an accurate profile already matters for the [local SEO of any small business](/en/blog/por-que-seo-local-e-fundamental-para-pequenos-negocios/). When the feature arrives, turn it on, send the ten most common questions yourself and read the answers before any customer does.