Google is inviting more businesses into a pilot that brings messaging back to Business Profiles, with an AI agent answering first. Customers tap to message a business from Search or Maps and carry on the conversation in their phone’s own texting app. Google’s agent answers the routine questions and passes anything harder to the business.
The answer in brief
- As of 2 November 2026, Google has not confirmed that its AI messaging pilot covers the UK, but a UK agency says the AI messaging inbox has appeared on some of the client profiles it manages.
- Other reports come from the US and France. Google’s own examples are restaurants: menus and table bookings.
- The agent is free. It answers only customers whose phone and mobile network support RCS, the richer successor to SMS; other customers’ messages go straight to the business’s phone as ordinary texts.
- RCS chats with businesses already run in the UK, but Apple does not list RCS for iPhone users on Vodafone, Sky or Virgin Mobile.
- UK businesses can prepare now by correcting the hours, menus, services and booking links the agent would quote, and by deciding who picks up the conversations it hands over.
What is Google Business Profile AI messaging?
Google Business Profile AI messaging is a pilot that lets customers text a business from its listing on Google Search and Maps, with a Google AI agent replying on the business’s behalf. The setup screen, as Search Engine Roundtable reported on 29 October 2026, says customers write from their phone’s native messaging app and that the agent “will answer routine questions from customers, instantly and at no cost”. It passes on what it cannot answer, and staff can take over a conversation at any time. The conversations sit in the Business Profile.
Google demonstrates it with a restaurant. In the animated demo Claudia Tomina posted on LinkedIn, the agent brings up dishes with photos and prices, then suggests free booking slots. The invitation that local search analyst Mike Blumenthal shared on X makes the same pitch: the agent deals with common questions and reservations, and sends complex questions to the business.
The inbox behind it was briefly visible earlier in the year. On 25 June 2026 a Messages option appeared in some Business Profile dashboards for a few hours before Google pulled it. Partoo described its four tabs from screenshots shared by Whitespark’s Darren Shaw:
- Messages, split into “Needs your attention” and “Handled by your AI agent”
- Insights, marked as coming soon
- Settings, for a welcome message, conversation starters, a logo and a “Customer handoff” notification
- Promote, for Google Ads that would open a conversation with the agent, not yet live at the time
Google may have changed the layout since.
Can UK businesses use it yet?
Some appear to, though so far only on an agency’s account. Google has not announced the pilot, named the countries it covers or documented it in the Business Profile help centre. One to Three Marketing Solutions, an agency serving small and medium-sized UK businesses, reported in a post dated 22 October 2026 and updated on 29 October that the new Messages area, with its “Handled by your AI agent” section, had appeared on some of the client profiles it manages. It has started setting the feature up where the option is available.
The other reports come from the US and France. The June sighting surfaced in the US, and the French local marketing platforms Partoo and Digitaleo described the pilot as running in the US in July and September. On 21 October 2026, the French web studio Yes We Blog reported that several Business Profile accounts had received an invitation in French the day before. So the pilot has left the US, and in the UK the evidence so far is the agency’s account.
If the table extends beyond the screen, scroll sideways to view all columns.
| Date | What was reported | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 29 October 2026 | What was reportedMore businesses get access; the setup screen and an English invitation aimed at restaurants are shared | SourceSearch Engine Roundtable |
| 22 October 2026 | What was reportedA UK agency reports the AI messaging inbox on some client profiles it manages and starts setting it up | SourceOne to Three Marketing Solutions |
| 20 October 2026 | What was reportedSeveral Business Profile accounts receive a French-language invitation to the free pilot | SourceYes We Blog |
| 25 June 2026 | What was reportedA Messages tab with an AI agent inbox appears in some dashboards for a few hours, then disappears | SourceSearch Engine Roundtable; Local Search Forum |
Google’s agents already reach UK customers in another form. Since 10 April 2026, AI Mode in Search has helped UK diners find and secure restaurant tables. That is a separate product, and it says nothing about when the messaging pilot might arrive.
Which customers will the AI agent answer?
Only customers whose phone and mobile network handle RCS. The footer of Google’s invitation limits the agent to customers on “participating mobile networks whose phones support RCS”, in Yes We Blog’s translation of the French email. Other customers can still send a message, but the agent will not reply to them. Their messages go straight to the business’s phone, and Google notes that standard messaging rates may apply.
RCS (Rich Communication Services) is the successor to SMS that Google Messages uses on Android and that Apple’s Messages app supports on iPhone where the network allows it. Its business version, which Google calls RCS for Business, shows the company’s name, logo and a verified tick in place of a phone number.
RCS chats with businesses already run in the UK: Google Messages Help lists the UK among the countries where customers can unsubscribe from them. On iPhone, support depends on the network. Apple’s UK carrier list shows RCS for EE, BT, Three, O2, giffgaff and Tesco Mobile, and not for Vodafone, Sky, Virgin Mobile, iD Mobile or Talk Mobile. On Apple’s list as it stands, an iPhone customer on Vodafone has no RCS, so under the terms of Google’s invitation their messages would skip the agent and arrive as plain texts.
One more detail matters for privacy. Google Messages Help says verified RCS chats between businesses and customers are not end-to-end encrypted, and that whoever operates a business chat, and in some cases the carrier, may access message content.
What does it cost?
Nothing, for the agent. Google’s setup screen and both reported invitations describe the AI messaging as free. The only charge the invitation mentions is the standard messaging rate that may apply to texts outside the agent’s reach.
Advertising is a separate matter. The Promote tab seen in June led to Google Ads, and for Google Marketing Live 2026 Google published a page on Message Ads with RCS for Business: Search ads that move people into a verified text thread, where Google AI qualifies the lead. Those are paid ads, and Google’s UK site describes them in the future tense, with no UK date. Our Google Marketing Live 2026 recap covers a related format, Business Agent for Leads, which puts an AI chat agent inside lead-generation ads.
How is it different from the chat Google switched off in 2024?
The old chat left replies to the business. The pilot hands the first reply to Google’s AI agent.
Google stopped customers starting new Business Profile chats on 15 July 2024 and removed the feature on 31 July 2024, as 9to5Google reported in May 2024. The chat button sat on listings in Search and Maps, and the business replied in person or through its own bot. Since then, verified profiles have been able to add a WhatsApp or text message link under Chat instead, an option Google’s help centre limits to select regions.
With the agent in place, a customer who writes after closing time gets an answer straight away, and staff step in when the agent hands over. The conversation also takes place in the customer’s own messaging app over RCS, and the Promote tab seen in June pointed to Google Ads.
What should UK businesses do now?
Get the profile ready before any invitation arrives. The agent answers from what Google holds about the business, so most of the work is housekeeping that helps in local search anyway.
- Fix what the agent would quote. Check opening and holiday hours, menus and prices, services and booking links. A wrong detail on the profile becomes a wrong answer in a customer’s messages. Our GEO guide covers the wider job of making a business easy for AI search to find, trust and mention.
- Look for Messages in your dashboard. A red dot on Messages in the Business Profile dashboard marks the new feature. Check the email of every owner and manager on the profile for an invitation as well.
- Decide who picks up. Name a person and a response time for conversations the agent hands over, and for plain texts from customers without RCS. Google has not said which number receives those texts, so check where they arrive when you test the agent, and make sure someone reads them.
- Use the messaging you already have. If your profile shows a Chat option, a WhatsApp or text link lets customers message you today.
- Test before customers do. Once you have access, put your most common questions to the agent from a phone with RCS, then message the business from one without it (on Apple’s list, an iPhone on Vodafone) to see where that text lands. Correct the profile wherever the answers fall short.
- Check your privacy notice. Customers may send names, dates and booking details through chats that Google says are not end-to-end encrypted.
What has Google not said yet?
Google has published no documentation for the pilot, so the questions a business would ask before switching it on are still open:
- which countries and business types the pilot covers, and when it opens more widely
- what the agent draws on: the Business Profile alone, or the website and reviews too
- whether a business can review, correct or limit the agent’s answers, or set its tone
- whether a business can keep messaging and switch the agent off
- which networks count as participating, and which number receives texts from everyone else
- what the Insights tab will report
Need your Business Profile checked before Google’s agent starts answering from it? Talk to AIWIZ.