Google Business Profile Messages Are Coming Back, With an AI Agent

On 28 October, Search Engine Roundtable reported a comment from a reader who was setting up the message button on a Google listing. Google wanted two things first: an EIN and a privacy policy URL. The screen also said "a Google partner" would review his details before he could receive messages, which "takes about three to four working days" (Search Engine Roundtable, 28 Oct 2026).

That screen arrives while Google tests bringing Business Profile messages back, more than two years after it shut chat down. In the version people have seen so far, you won't be the first to reply. An AI agent will.

Below: what has been reported, what nobody knows yet, and what to fix on your listing before a bot starts repeating it to your customers.

Why is Google asking for my EIN and a privacy policy URL?

Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable writes that Google is asking "some businesses" for an EIN. The reader said Google wanted the EIN plus "an additional Privacy Policy URL", and that it came up while he was setting up the message button. The on-screen text frames the review as a way "to help protect you and your customers" (Search Engine Roundtable).

That is one reader's report in one publication. It isn't a published Google policy, and a lot is still unclear:

• How many businesses are seeing it, and in which countries.
• What happens if you don't have an EIN.
• Who the "Google partner" doing the review is.
• Whether the step belongs to the new AI messaging or to the message button in general. The article doesn't mention AI, though the comment was left under the site's June story about the AI-agent message button.

An EIN is a US federal tax number, so the report tells a Canadian or UK owner nothing about what they might be asked for instead. Nobody has reported Google asking for a CRA business number. If you're in the US, know where your EIN is. Wherever you are, treat the privacy policy request as a nudge to put a real page on your site that says what you do with the names, phone numbers and job details people send you.

Wait, didn't Google shut down Google Business Profile messages in 2024?

It did. From 15 July 2024, customers could no longer start new chats, and the feature was removed entirely on 31 July 2024. Owners had until 30 August 2024 to export their chat history through Google Takeout (PPC Land, 28 May 2024). Partoo, which sells local-listing software, says it went "with no official explanation" (Partoo).

On Thursday 25 June 2026 a Messages button reappeared on the Business Profile dashboard for a few hours that morning, then Google pulled it back (Search Engine Roundtable, 26 Jun 2026; Silverfox Digital). Partoo's write-up of the returning version says the big change is the order of things. The AI "responds first, drawing on the listing's own data", and hands the conversation to a person "when it reaches the limits of what it can handle".

Separately, Google has opened a closed beta of Business Home, which its help page calls "a growth partner built with Gemini models". The same page describes AI-powered messaging with RCS for Business, so customers with questions can get answers (Google Business Home Help). Google hasn't said whether that and the profile message button are the same product, so don't assume they are.

What does Google's AI actually say to my customers?

Google hasn't documented it. As of 29 October 2026 we have found no Google help page for the AI agent, and when Partoo last updated its post on 9 September, it said "The documentation doesn't yet exist". Most of what's known comes from Partoo's walkthrough of the dashboard (Partoo):

• Conversations land in one of two sections: "Needs your attention" or "Handled by your AI agent".
• You can set a welcome message, choose conversation starters and add your logo.
• There's no setting for tone or style.
• A "Customer handoff" toggle sends you a notification when the AI passes a conversation over.
• A Promote tab lets you build Google Ads that open straight into a chat with the AI agent.

None of the reports say how the agent introduces itself. If you've been wondering whether you need to tell customers they're dealing with AI, we looked at that question here.

This is the shift worth noticing. Until now your Business Profile was a directory entry. People glanced at it, then called you. Once an AI answers questions from it, the listing becomes a script. Every out-of-date hour, every service you dropped, every attribute you ticked in 2021 is something a bot can now tell a customer in your name.

What could it get wrong, and how do I stop it promising things I can't do?

If, as Partoo reports, the AI draws on the listing's own data, the listing is the one lever you clearly control. Go through it line by line:

1. Regular hours. Are they what you work now, or what you worked before you stopped doing Saturday jobs? If you run Local Services Ads, those hours already cost money: since 1 October, Google can charge for missed calls during the hours your profile lists, while your ads are running.
2. Holiday hours. Christmas is eight weeks away, with Boxing Day and New Year right behind it. Set them now.
3. Services. Remove anything you no longer do. A customer told "yes, we do that" will expect it.
4. Service area. If you won't drive 40 minutes for a leaky faucet, don't list the town 40 minutes away.
5. Attributes. Wheelchair access, parking, online appointments, emergency service. Each one can turn into a confident answer.
6. Pricing language. "Free estimates" or a starting price in your description reads like a commitment once a bot repeats it.

Then use the conversation starters to steer people toward questions the listing answers well: opening hours, the areas you cover, how to book. Keep the welcome message plain and accurate. If the AI tells someone you do emergency service calls on Sundays, that customer will hold you to it, not Google. Nobody has tested who answers for Google's bot, but a Canadian tribunal held Air Canada to what its own chatbot promised.

Who checks the "Needs your attention" pile at 9pm?

The AI doesn't remove the need to respond. It sorts the work. Easy questions get handled. The valuable ones, like quotes, urgent jobs and anything the listing can't answer, go into the pile that waits for you.

Illustrative example (all figures made up for illustration, not from any study):

A plumbing business gets 30 Business Profile messages a month.

• 40% arrive outside business hours: 30 × 0.40 = 12 after-hours messages.
• The AI handles two in three (hours, service area, "do you fix water heaters") and hands off one in three: 12 × 1/3 = 4 after-hours handoffs a month. Those are the quote requests and the urgent jobs.
• Those 4 sit until the owner checks at 7am. By then, half have booked someone else: 4 × 0.5 = 2 lost jobs a month.
• At a $400 average job (swap in your own number), that's 2 × $400 = $800 a month, or $9,600 a year.

The AI replied to all 12 messages instantly. The money was still lost, in 2 of the 4 it had to hand off. This counts only after-hours messages; the 18 daytime messages produce about 6 more handoffs, which cost money too if nobody answers them quickly.

Now say the owner turns on the handoff notification, and half of those 4 arrive before 9pm, so 2 get a reply within 15 minutes. Assume a 15-minute reply keeps the job. The other 2 still wait until morning, and half of those go elsewhere: 2 × 0.5 = 1 lost job, or $400 a month instead of $800. Still illustrative, but the pattern holds: your reply speed on the handoff pile decides whether this channel earns anything. It's the same arithmetic as the real cost of missed calls, moved into a chat window.

Pick a rule you can keep. "Handoffs get a reply within 15 minutes until 9pm, and first thing at 7am after that" beats a vague plan to check messages when you can.

Is Google's AI messaging available in Canada yet? Should I bother?

Not that anyone has reported. Partoo says the AI messaging is in pilot in the US, with Europe expected later, and gives no date. Nobody has given one for Canada.

Google's related Business Home beta is no wider. Its help page says it is a closed beta, by invitation, for select business categories in the US and the UK only. You need a verified profile with fewer than 10 locations and one type of business, plus a few account limits (Google Business Home Help; Search Engine Roundtable, 22 Oct 2026).

Should you bother anyway? The listing audit, yes. Customers already read your profile to decide whether to call you, and a wrong holiday hour costs you whether a bot repeats it or not. The rest can wait until you see the button.

What should I prepare this week?

• EIN (US businesses): know where to find it. Outside the US, nothing has been reported yet.
• A real privacy policy page: one that covers what happens to the details customers send you, at a URL that won't change.
• Listing audit: hours, holiday hours, services, service area, attributes and pricing wording.
• Notifications: when the feature reaches you, switch on the handoff alert and send it to a phone someone actually carries.
• After-hours cover: decide who answers the "Needs your attention" pile in the evening and at weekends, and how fast. We compared voicemail, answering services and AI receptionists for exactly this gap.

Google's AI can answer the easy questions. The quote request that comes in at 9pm still needs someone to pick it up, and the same gap shows up on your phone line after hours. That is the gap Zalena covers, and you can hear it in the live voice demo on our homepage.

FAQ

Are Google Business Profile messages coming back? It looks that way, though nothing has launched generally. Google removed chat on 31 July 2024. A Messages button briefly reappeared in late June 2026, and Partoo reports a US pilot in which an AI agent replies first and hands off to the owner. As of 29 October 2026, Google has not documented it.

Why is Google asking for an EIN to turn on messages? One reader of Search Engine Roundtable reported that Google asked for an EIN and a privacy policy URL while he set up the message button, followed by a review by a Google partner that takes about three to four working days. It is not a published Google policy, and who sees it is unclear.

Is Google's AI messaging available in Canada? Not that anyone has reported. Partoo says the AI messaging is in pilot in the United States, with Europe expected later, and gives no date. Google's related Business Home beta is limited to the US and the UK.

How do I stop Google's AI telling customers the wrong thing? By Partoo's account it answers from your listing's own data, so audit your regular and holiday hours, services, service area, attributes and pricing wording. When the feature reaches you, turn on the Customer handoff notification.

Part of our series on small business phone strategy. Browse all posts.

Sources

1. Barry Schwartz, Search Engine Roundtable, Google asking businesses for an EIN at message-button setup, 28 Oct 2026. https://www.seroundtable.com/google-business-profiles-ein-request-42382.html
2. Search Engine Roundtable, "Google Business Profiles Message Button & AI Agent On Dashboard", 26 Jun 2026. https://www.seroundtable.com/google-business-profiles-message-button-41575.html
3. Partoo, Google reintroduces Business Profile messaging with an AI agent, 16 Jul 2026, updated 9 Sep 2026. https://www.partoo.co/en/blog/google-reintroduces-business-profile-messaging-with-ai-agent/
4. Google, Business Home Help, read 29 Oct 2026. https://support.google.com/businesshome/answer/17190673?hl=en
5. Search Engine Roundtable, Google Business Home closed beta, 22 Oct 2026. https://www.seroundtable.com/google-business-home-42363.html
6. Silverfox Digital, Google Business Profile AI message feature, read 29 Oct 2026. https://silverfoxdigital.com/articles/google-business-profile-ai-message-feature/
7. PPC Land, Google Business Profile chat feature to sunset on 31 July 2024, 28 May 2024. https://ppc.land/google-business-profile-chat-feature-to-sunset-on-july-31-2024