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

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.