{"id":116982,"date":"2019-01-07T23:22:28","date_gmt":"2019-01-07T23:22:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/?p=116982"},"modified":"2025-07-01T22:32:45","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T05:32:45","slug":"the-google-maps-messaging-update-will-be-on-your-phone-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/the-google-maps-messaging-update-will-be-on-your-phone-soon\/","title":{"rendered":"The Google Maps messaging update will be on your phone soon"},"content":{"rendered":"

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We\u2019ve been talking a lot recently, about big updates coming to Google Maps. We\u2019ve seen lots of cool new features like a special mode for using Google Assistant while you\u2019re navigating<\/a> and a new feature for reporting traffic accidents and incidents<\/a>. The other big news for Google\u2019s flagship mapping app has been its pivot towards becoming a business directory to help users find businesses in their local area. There has been the addition of Instagram-style hashtags to reviews<\/a>, making it easier to find exactly what you\u2019re looking for, and Google has also promised us that Maps will soon have a messages tab<\/a>. The new messages feature is now rolling out.<\/p>\n

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The Google Maps Messages tab will help you contact businesses<\/h2>\n

We covered a lot about the functionality of the new Messages tab<\/a> when we first reported on it back in November. The new Message button will show on the business overview tab of any business that has registered for the service with Google Maps. You\u2019ll also be able to find all of your chats in the new Messages button found in the main settings sidebar of the app. The key, however, is that this new Messages button won\u2019t enable you to spark up conversations with your friends, it is only for talking to businesses.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Did Google Maps just become a messaging app?<\/p>\r\n Read now<\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n

If this all sounds like something you\u2019d be interested in using, then you\u2019ll be happy to hear that users on social media have started to see the new feature land on their app. Over on Reddit<\/a>, the response to the new feature seems positive, too. Now, if you need to ask a question about opening times, specific food allergies, or whatever you can just open up a chat bubble and ask away. At the very least, the new Messages feature looks set to remove the need to ask questions in reviews.<\/p>\n

This move is not an attempt by Google to muscle in on social messaging platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, or Snapchat. Not yet, anyway. There is nothing to say Google won\u2019t extend the feature to all of a user\u2019s Google contacts in the future, but at the moment there is no evidence to suggest that is the plan.<\/p>\n

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Secure Messaging Apps<\/p>\r\n

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What this is though, is an attempt to move into a growing marketplace. Facebook\u2019s Messenger app has long been trying to become the app for everything, with business messages forming a huge part of those efforts. Instagram also offers a great way for businesses and customers to contact each other and WhatsApp has recently launched WhatsApp Business, which will charge business users for contacting their customers using WhatsApp. It could be a crowded marketplace that Google is moving into, but with so many people using the app to find places already, Maps could be about to become the internet\u2019s number one business directory.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Google Maps Messages tab will help you contact businesses<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9073,"featured_media":104549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[1015],"tags":[2566,1068,1126,1033,1041],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-116982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-app-subdomain-redirectionyour-phone","tag-google","tag-online","tag-shopping","tag-travel"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9073"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116982"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":326790,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116982\/revisions\/326790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116982"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=116982"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=116982"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=116982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}