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Google has recently announced that it will be shutting down the chat and call history features within Google Business Profile. This decision comes after a wind-down process that will begin on July 15, 2024, with full support for these functionalities ending by July 31. Businesses utilizing these features were informed of this decision via email, with no online announcement made initially.
In the email sent to users, Google acknowledged the potential challenges this decision may present but reiterated their commitment to providing tools to support businesses that use their products and services. The company emphasized the importance of remaining a helpful partner to businesses as they manage their operations.
Google’s chat and call history features may not have been the most popular service among users, but transitioning to other platforms like Meta’s business chats on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp could lead them moving other operations to rival companies. This could have wider negative implications for Google. Despite these changes, customers will still be able to find and contact businesses through Google Search and Maps.
Starting on July 15, customers will no longer be able to initiate new chat conversations with businesses on the platform. Existing chats will receive notifications about the upcoming deprecation. By July 31, chat messages will be disabled, and call history will be deleted. To download their chat and call histories before they are permanently removed, businesses can use Google Takeout for this purpose. Additionally, businesses are encouraged to invite customers with ongoing chat conversations to switch to alternate chat channels.
Overall, this decision by Google highlights its focus on supporting businesses while also prioritizing its own growth opportunities in other areas such as social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
We reached out to TechRadar Pro for more information on the reasoning behind this decision and how it will impact customers. Unfortunately, we have not received a response from TechRadar Pro at this time.
It is important for businesses using these features to prepare accordingly for the upcoming changes in order to minimize any disruption or loss of data during this transition period.
