What happened to Google Business Profile chat and Q&A?

Two ways patients used to reach a clinic through Google are gone. Business Profile chat closed in 2024, and the public Q&A section has been phasing out since late 2025, replaced by an AI feature called Ask Maps. Here is exactly what changed, what Google's own pages say about it, and what to put in place instead.

What happened to Google Business Profile chat?

Google closed the chat and call history feature inside Business Profile in two steps. From 15 July 2024, customers could no longer start new chat conversations from a business's listing on Search or Maps. From 31 July 2024, the feature stopped working entirely: no new chats arrived, and call history disappeared from the profile too, according to Google's own Business Profile Help page (opens in a new tab). Anyone who wanted a record of old chats or calls had until 30 August 2024 to download it through Google Takeout, so that window has long since closed.

Google's help page states the dates and what to do next. It does not state a reason for ending the feature. Treat any claim you read about why Google made this change as someone else's guess, not Google's own word.

For a clinic, the practical effect is simple: an enquiry that used to arrive as a Business Profile chat message now has nowhere to land unless another channel is set up in its place. A patient who taps your listing on Search or Maps expecting to type a quick question, "are you open today", "do you take walk-ins", sees no chat box at all if nothing else has been added since mid-2024.

What happened to the Q&A section?

Separately, the public Questions & Answers section, where anyone could post a question about a business and the owner (or another visitor) could answer it, is also being retired. Google's developer documentation confirms it discontinued the My Business Q&A API on 3 November 2025, after announcing the change in September 2025, and that the notification types tied to new questions and answers were deprecated with it, per the Q&A API change log (opens in a new tab). Local-SEO trade publisher BrightLocal, tracking the same rollout, reports the public-facing Q&A section disappearing from individual profiles around the same period, with Google describing the feature as "changing" rather than announcing a single shut-off date for every listing.

1. 31 Jul 2024

   In-profile chat and call history end

   Business Profile chat stops working entirely; call history is removed from the profile.

   Google's help page (opens in a new tab)

2. 3 Nov 2025

   Q&A API discontinued

   Google retires the My Business Q&A API; the public Q&A section begins phasing out from profiles.

   Q&A API change log (opens in a new tab)

3. 12 Mar 2026

   Ask Maps launches in the US and India

   Google's Gemini-powered Ask Maps starts answering questions about places on Android and iOS.

   Google's announcement (opens in a new tab)

4. 6 Aug 2026

   Ask Maps adds Hindi in India

   Google's India blog announces Hindi support and live transit updates for Ask Maps.

   Google India blog (opens in a new tab)

How can patients message my clinic now?

Nothing about a Google Business Profile stops a patient from finding and contacting your clinic today. What changed is the channel: instead of an in-profile chat thread, Google now points to three plain contact methods, all set from your own profile.

The website link matters more than it used to. With Q&A gone and chat closed, your clinic's own website is the one channel Google cannot discontinue on you. If it does not already state fees, timings and how to book, this guide to a clinic's Google Business Profile covers what Google expects a profile and its linked website to show.

None of these three channels are new inventions built to replace chat. Phone numbers and website links were always part of a Business Profile; what changed is that they are now the only Google-hosted ways for a patient to reach you directly, rather than one option among several. A profile that only ever had a phone number listed loses nothing from this change. A profile that leaned on chat for most enquiries loses a real channel and needs a working replacement.

How do I add WhatsApp and a call link to my profile?

Both the phone number and the WhatsApp or text link live in the same place: your profile's Contact settings. Google's help pages lay out the steps for each.

1. 1Sign in as an owner or manager

   Step 1: Open your Business Profile at business.google.com

   Sign in as an owner or manager

2. 2

   Step 2: Select Edit profile, then Contact

3. 3

   Step 3: Next to Chat, select Edit

4. 4

   Step 4: Choose WhatsApp or Text message from the dropdown

   For WhatsApp, enter your click-to-chat link (wa.me/ followed by your full number, no plus sign or spaces). For text, enter a number that can receive SMS.
5. 5

   Step 5: Save

   If you add both a WhatsApp link and a text number, Google shows only the text option to patients.

Adding a phone number uses the same Business info screen: up to three numbers, one primary and two additional, mobile or landline (fax numbers are not accepted), per Google's help page on adding a phone number (opens in a new tab). Google formats the number automatically, so there is no need to add the country code or punctuation yourself.

What is Ask Maps and does it show information about my clinic?

Ask Maps is Google's replacement for browsing a place's old Q&A list. Instead of scrolling questions other people typed months or years ago, a searcher taps "Ask about this place" and gets a real-time answer, built from Google's own place data and reviews rather than anything a business owner wrote by hand. Google describes it as drawing on "information from over 300 million places, including reviews from our community of more than 500 million contributors," and it launched in the US and India together on 12 March 2026 (opens in a new tab), with Hindi added in India on 6 August 2026 (opens in a new tab).

• You cannot write the answer. Unlike Q&A, there is no field where a clinic types a reply. Ask Maps generates its answer at the moment someone asks.
• Your profile and reviews are the input. Keeping your hours, services, photos and reviews accurate and current is the only lever a clinic has over what Ask Maps ends up saying about it.
• It is rolled out, not universal. Ask Maps reached the US and India first; other countries followed separately, and Google keeps adding languages and features to it in stages.

Since you cannot edit an Ask Maps answer directly, the practical response is the same one that already runs through a clinic's Google Business Profile: a current listing, real photos, replied-to reviews and a website that answers the same questions patients used to leave in Q&A.

Think about which questions your old Q&A entries used to answer, if your clinic used the feature at all: parking, whether an appointment is needed, which insurance or payment methods you accept, whether a particular doctor is in that day. Every one of those belongs on your website or in your profile's services and description fields now, since that is the material Ask Maps and any AI answer engine has to work with instead.

Checklist: can a patient still reach your clinic?

Run through this once, then again whenever Google changes a profile feature. It takes about ten minutes.

If a WhatsApp number is one of the channels you add, how quickly it gets answered is what patients actually judge you on. Setting up WhatsApp Business for a clinic and adding your clinic to Google Maps correctly cover the two pieces this checklist assumes are already in place.