Google Business messaging
Also called: gbp messaging, business profile chat, google business messages
Google Business messaging was a chat feature that let customers message a business directly from its Google Business Profile on Search and Maps. Google discontinued it on July 31, 2024, so profiles now route contact through calls, website links, and reviews instead.
Business owners often still hunt for the “Chat” button in their Business Profile dashboard and find it gone. Google removed messaging in two steps: on July 15, 2024 customers could no longer start new chats, and on July 31, 2024 the feature (plus the call-history log) was pulled entirely. Records stayed downloadable through Google Takeout until August 30, 2024. The developer-side Google Business Messages API wound down on the same schedule, and the BUSINESS_CONVERSATIONS metric in the Performance API stopped reporting.
What replaced it
Google did not ship a drop-in successor. Instead, profiles were updated to show the business’s direct phone number (Google swapped forwarding numbers for real ones), and eligible accounts can be reached by text or WhatsApp. In practice, the contact paths that survive on a profile now are the call button, the website link, the directions link, reviews, and the Q&A section.
For example, a plumber who used to field job requests through profile chat now needs the phone number, service-area settings, and website call-to-action all working, because those are the only routes a searcher has left.
If you read older SEO guides that still tell you to “turn on messaging in Google Business Profile,” treat that as outdated. The setting no longer exists, and no amount of dashboard digging will bring it back.
How it affects your traffic
With chat gone, every conversion from your profile now flows through the phone number, website link, and reviews, so those elements have to be right. Our Local SEO work keeps your Business Profile complete, your NAP consistent, and the surviving contact paths actually converting searchers into calls instead of dead ends left behind by a feature Google retired.
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