Google Business Profile Call History & Chat Going Away July 31, 2024

SEO

By Chris Barnhart Last updated May 29, 2024

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Google will be removing the call history reports and the Chat and messaging features within Google Business Profiles on July 31, 2024. Google said, “We acknowledge this may be difficult news,” but added, “We occasionally have to make difficult decisions.”

I wondered if Google removed this over privacy issues, but Google said it was because the features had “relatively low usage and we’re prioritizing focus on higher-impact features for merchants.”

Google added call history reporting in 2020, it was missing data for most until the following year but was teased as a way to preview calls.

The chat feature launched as messaging back in 2017. Here is the help document on this change.

Starting on July 15th, Searchers won’t be able to start new chats with you, but existing chats will still work. July 31st, chatting will be fully disabled.

Google is giving you a way to download the historical call history and chat history for now…

I received a combined email that says “Business Profile chat and call history are going away,” but some received individual emails about individual features going away.

Here is a comment on this from Google’s Ad Liaison:

While call history is being deprecated, note that you can use Google Takeout to save the chat history and call history when signed into the business’ Google Account. More on Takeout here: https://t.co/TsmCKQYDJU
cc: @AnthonyHigman @DcDigitalUS @ChelseafaninFl

— AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) May 28, 2024

These features have relatively low usage and we’re prioritizing focus on higher-impact features for merchants.

— AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) May 28, 2024

Jason Brown posted a screenshot on X of the email he received from Google about this news. Here is that screenshot:

It reads:

We’re reaching out to share that on July 31, 2024, you will stop seeing call history reports in Google Business Profile. We acknowledge this may be difficult news – as we continually improve our tools, we occasionally have to make difficult decisions which may impact the businesses and partners we work with. It’s important to us that Google remains a helpful partner as you manage your business and we remain committed to this mission.

Please note, customers will still be able to find and contact your business via Google Search and Maps – and learn more information about you from your website links, business description, photos, and anything else you share on your Business Profile.

You will also continue to be able to receive calls from your Business Profile and track other engagement metrics for your business, including web traffic or directions requests.

If you have questions about this change, you can learn more here. It’s important to us that your Business Profile continues to be a helpful tool for you to manage your business.