Short answer
Since late 2025, Google retired Business Profile Q&A from Maps in favor of AI answers, launched Gemini-powered Ask Maps, added post scheduling, began removing posts with unverified contact details, gave owners four days to reject suggested edits, and tightened review rules. Check your profile, notifications and website details every month.
Google rarely announces Business Profile changes with a press release. Most show up as a quiet edit to a help page, a forum post from a Google product specialist, or a screenshot someone spots on X. If you only log in when something breaks, you've probably missed half of them.
I manage Google Business Profiles for clients and keep a running list. Here's every change that matters to a small business from late 2025 through mid-October 2026. I've linked each one to Google's own documentation where it exists, and to the industry report where it doesn't. I've also marked which changes are confirmed and which are still tests.
What happened to Google Business Profile Q&A?
This is the big one. The public Questions & Answers section that sat on Business Profiles since 2017 is gone from Google Maps.
Here's the verified timeline:
- September 17, 2025: Google told developers it would discontinue the My Business Q&A API (PPC Land).
- November 3, 2025: The API was switched off. Google's changelog says you "can no longer read or post questions and answers using the API" (Google for Developers).
- December 2025: A Google product specialist confirmed in the Business Profile Help Community that Q&A in Maps was being replaced. Customers now ask questions through an AI-powered Ask button and get answers drawn from your answers and relevant reviews (Search Engine Roundtable).
Google said owners can still answer existing questions in the Q&A section of their Business Profile dashboard, and that those answers "may be shown in Maps." Then in August 2026, people spotted Google testing a revamped Q&A flow in the dashboard that asks owners yes-or-no questions about their business (Search Engine Roundtable). That's still a test.
What to do now:
- Stop paying anyone for "Q&A seeding." Planting your own questions and answers on your profile used to be a popular local SEO tactic. That public Q&A section is gone.
- If your dashboard asks you questions about your business, answer them accurately. Google is clearly using them to feed AI answers.
- Move your real FAQs to your website, in plain text, on the relevant service pages. That's where AI tools can read and quote them. My AEO guide explains how.
What is Ask Maps, and how does it pick businesses?
Google launched Ask Maps on March 12, 2026. It's a Gemini-powered conversational search inside Google Maps. It started rolling out in the US and India on Android and iOS, with desktop "coming soon" (Google blog).
People can ask detailed questions like "Is there a public tennis court with lights I can play at tonight?" and get a conversational answer with a map. Google says Maps analyzes information from over 300 million places, including reviews from more than 500 million contributors, and personalizes results based on things like places you've searched for or saved.
What Google hasn't published is how Ask Maps chooses which businesses to recommend. Anyone selling you an "Ask Maps ranking strategy" is guessing.
What I tell clients, based on what Google does say:
- Fill in everything that's true. Categories, services, products, attributes, hours (including holiday hours), service areas. An AI can't recommend you for "open late" or "wheelchair accessible" if your profile doesn't say so.
- Keep photos current. Real photos of your premises, team and work.
- Earn detailed reviews naturally. Reviews feed these answers, but be careful. As covered below, Google's rules don't let you tell customers what to write.
Can Google change my Business Profile without my approval?
Yes, and in 2026 Google became much more explicit about how.
The 4-day rule for suggested edits. In September 2026, Google updated its help documentation. When a suggested edit needs your review, you may get an email or in-product notification, and you have 4 days to accept or reject it. If you don't respond, Google "may automatically publish the update if it is supported by other publicly available information, such as your business website." Google also says some edits may be applied without any prior review (Search Engine Roundtable).
Automated calls, texts and WhatsApp messages. Google says it may contact the phone number on your profile with automated calls, texts or WhatsApp messages to confirm details like hours. Updates from those calls are marked "Pending," and review can take up to 5 business days (Google Business Profile Help). Google can also post updates to your profile on your behalf based on those conversations. You can switch each of these off under Advanced settings.
Collected info. In September 2026, Google announced the "Collected info" tab was officially live. Under Edit profile, it shows what Google's automated assistant gathered, with the source and date. You can delete outdated items (Google Business Profile Help, Search Engine Land). Google notes that it's only available in select regions, languages and categories.
AI-assisted hours (test). Google was also seen testing a feature that lets you describe your hours in plain text and have Google turn them into structured hours (Search Engine Roundtable).
What to do now:
- Turn on email notifications for your profile and make sure they go to an inbox someone actually reads. Four days goes by fast.
- Make your website match your profile exactly: name, phone, address and hours, in real text on every page. Google now openly says it uses your website to settle disputed edits.
- Check Collected info and Advanced settings once a month. Decide on purpose whether you want Google posting on your behalf.
What changed with Google Posts?
Three changes:
- Scheduling and multi-location publishing. Rolled out in November 2025 (Search Engine Roundtable). Google's help page now also shows a "Repeats" option for recurring posts (Google help).
- Phone numbers and contact details in posts. In September 2026, Google changed its wording. It now says it "may remove posts with unverified contact information," including phone numbers, emails and social media handles. Posts with a phone number "might get rejected if they cannot be verified as being connected to the business" (Search Engine Roundtable). Use the post's Call button instead of typing a number.
- Featured posts from social media. For single-location food and drink businesses in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand (English only), Google may automatically show event, deal or special posts from your Facebook, Instagram or Business Profile. On mobile, these featured posts can appear in place of reviews (Google help). If you run a restaurant or café, your social media posts now affect your Google listing directly.
What changed with Google reviews?
Stricter review policy. In February 2026, Google updated its Maps content policy (Search Engine Roundtable). Google's current policy says merchants may not:
- Offer incentives (payment, discounts, free goods or services) for reviews, or for revising or removing a negative one
- Discourage negative reviews or selectively ask only happy customers for reviews
- Require or pressure customers to leave reviews while on the premises
- Ask customers to include specific content, including naming a staff member
- Set staff targets for collecting a certain number of reviews
That last pair catches out a lot of businesses. "Please mention Sarah in your review!" and staff review quotas are both against the policy now. You are allowed to ask every customer for an honest review without incentives. That's the system I set up for clients, often automated through a CRM like GoHighLevel.
Sign-in required to read all reviews. Since around September 30, 2026, Google Maps asks people to sign in to see all reviews, sort them or leave one (Search Engine Roundtable). Google hasn't officially announced this. Most customers on phones are signed in anyway, but it's one more reason to show real testimonials on your own website.
Can I use Gemini to manage my Business Profile?
On June 10, 2026, Google announced you can connect a Business Profile to the Gemini app. Gemini can then analyze performance data, draft review replies, update hours and suggest profile fixes. Google also launched "Business notebooks" (Google blog).
One important footnote for my UK and European readers: Google's announcement says the rollout is global excluding the EEA and UK.
My take: use it for drafts and insights, then approve every change yourself. An AI reply to a one-star review that gets the facts wrong is worse than a slower human one.
Are there new ways to verify a Business Profile?
Possibly. In September 2026, Google was spotted testing verification by submitting a photo of your business location. That would be a fifth method, alongside phone or text, email, live video call and postcard (Search Engine Roundtable). It's a test, so don't count on it yet. Your verification options are still whatever Google offers you in the dashboard.
What should a small business do this month?
Here's my 30-minute checklist:
- Turn on Business Profile email notifications and check for pending suggested edits.
- Open Edit profile > Collected info (if you have it) and delete anything outdated.
- Review Advanced settings for automated calls, texts and posting on your behalf.
- Compare your website and profile: identical name, phone, address and hours, in text, on every page.
- Remove phone numbers typed into posts. Use the Call button.
- Fill in every attribute, service and product that's true for your business.
- Rewrite any review request that offers an incentive, targets only happy customers or asks for specific wording.
- Move your FAQs onto your website's service pages.
- Check your customer-uploaded photos for spam or numbers that aren't yours, and report them.
If you'd rather not track all of this yourself, it's what my Google Business Profile management service covers: monthly posts and photos, review replies drafted for your approval, and watching for wrong hours, duplicate listings and spam edits. For a single-location local business, my local business page lists my starting prices. I won't buy reviews, promise a Maps 3-pack spot or put a fake address on your listing.
Questions about something odd on your profile? Send me the link and I'll take a look.
FAQs
Is Google Business Profile Q&A gone?
From the public Maps experience, yes. Google shut down the Q&A API on November 3, 2025, and in December 2025 confirmed it was replacing Q&A in Maps with an AI-powered Ask feature. Owners can still answer existing questions in the dashboard.
What is Ask Maps?
Ask Maps is Google's Gemini-powered conversational search in Google Maps. It launched March 12, 2026, starting in the US and India on Android and iOS. It answers detailed questions using Maps data, including reviews from more than 500 million contributors.
What happens if I ignore a suggested edit on my Google Business Profile?
Google says you have 4 days to accept or reject a suggested edit that needs your review. After that, it may publish the edit automatically if other public information, like your website, supports it.
Can I put my phone number in a Google Business Profile post?
It's risky. Google says it may remove posts with unverified contact information, including phone numbers, emails and social handles. Use the post's Call button, which uses your profile's verified number.
Can I ask customers to mention my staff in Google reviews?
No. Google's policy says merchants shouldn't ask customers to include specific content in reviews, including naming a staff member, and shouldn't set staff targets for collecting reviews. You can ask every customer for an honest review.
Is Gemini's Business Profile integration available in the UK?
Not at launch. Google's June 10, 2026 announcement said the Business Profile connection and Business notebooks were rolling out globally, excluding the EEA and UK.