Google has announced that it will be discontinuing the chat and call history features within Google Business Profile. This decision was communicated to businesses directly via email on July 15, 2024, and the wind-down process will begin on this date. On July 31, these functionalities will lose support entirely.
Google acknowledged the challenges that this decision may pose for businesses but reaffirmed its commitment to improving tools to support businesses using its products and services. From July 15, customers will no longer be able to start new chat conversations with businesses on the platform. Existing chats will receive notifications about the upcoming deprecation, and on July 31, chat messages and call history will be removed.
Customers can still find and contact businesses via Google Search and Maps. To ensure that they retain their chat and call histories for record-keeping purposes, Google advised businesses to download them using Google Takeout. Additionally, Google suggested businesses invite customers with ongoing chat conversations to alternate channels for communication purposes.
While Google’s chat and call history features may not have been as popular among users as other services, there is a possibility that users forced to move to other platforms such as Meta’s business chats across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp could end up transferring other operations to competitor companies. This could potentially result in wider negative implications for Google in the long run.
TechRadar Pro reached out to Google for more information on this decision and its potential impact on customers. We are currently waiting for a response from the company regarding these matters.
Businesses using these features received notice directly through email without an online announcement from Google.
Google has announced that it will shut down certain features within its Business Profile tool used by small business owners who use it as a way of connecting with their customers through online messaging and calls.
The wind-down process for these features began on July 15th of next year (2024), which means that customers will no longer be able to start new chats or calls with businesses on this platform from this date forward.
Existing chats with customers who use these features received notifications about the upcoming deprecation of these functionalities by July 31st of next year (2024). On this date, all chat messages and call history associated with these features were removed entirely.
Google assured its customers that they would still be able to find and contact businesses through Google Search or Maps without any interruptions in service.
To help them retain their records of past conversations or calls made through Business Profile’s messaging feature called “Chat”, Google recommended downloading them using its “Google Takeout” service.
Additionally, Google suggested that those with ongoing chats or calls should consider inviting them over to alternate communication channels like Discord or Slack.