Google discontinued the My Business Q&A API on November 3, 2025, eliminating a communication channel businesses had used for 8 years to answer customer questions directly on their Maps and Search listings.
The shutdown affects how businesses manage customer inquiries across their Google Business Profiles. Companies that relied on third-party platforms to monitor and respond to questions at scale can no longer access the API, forcing them back to manual management through Google’s interface alone.
For multi-location businesses already stretched thin managing reviews, photos, posts, and business information consistency through local citation services and other digital infrastructure, the Q&A removal represents another layer of complexity in maintaining customer engagement.
The Feature That Built Trust
The Q&A feature launched in Google Maps in 2017, allowing customers to post public questions on business listings and receive answers from owners or other users. It created a transparent communication layer where potential customers could see real interactions about hours, services, pricing, and policies.
A restaurant could clarify whether they accommodated dietary restrictions. A dental office could explain their new patient process. A contractor could detail their service area. These exchanges appeared prominently on business profiles, often influencing whether someone chose to visit or call.
Google notified developers on September 17, 2025, that it would discontinue the API, affecting businesses that rely on programmatic question management capabilities. The 47-day notice left agencies and software providers scrambling to redesign workflows.
Why Google Pulled the Plug
According to the December 3 announcement, Google “heard feedback that as our Q&A capability has grown over the years, it has become more difficult for customers to wade through all the questions and find timely answers to the specific question they have. The company positioned the change as addressing user frustration with outdated or irrelevant questions that had accumulated over time.
But industry observers see a different motivation. Google has systematically phased out direct communication tools between businesses and customers over the past two years. The chat feature removal, effective on July 31, 2024, eliminated direct messaging between companies and customers via Google Search and Maps. The Business Calls API ended on May 30, 2023.
The pattern suggests Google is pushing toward AI-mediated interactions rather than human-to-human communication on its platforms.
What’s Replacing It
Google will replace the traditional Questions & Answers feature in Google Maps with an AI-powered Ask button. Instead of browsing existing Q&A threads, customers will ask questions directly and receive AI-generated responses based on business information, reviews, and other available data.
Multiple sources report that Google is testing a new feature called Ask Maps, a conversational AI assistant built into Google Maps that can answer local questions using Gemini, Google’s large language model.
The system will generate responses by analyzing business profiles, customer reviews, photos, and website content. Business owners will answer aggregated questions rather than responding to individual customer inquiries.
Google announced on December 13, 2025, that its Gemini AI assistant can display local search results in a rich visual format by pulling data directly from Google Maps, providing users with photos, ratings, and location information without requiring separate navigation to Maps applications.
The Control Problem
The shift creates a fundamental change in how businesses communicate with potential customers. With traditional Q&A, business owners controlled their answers. They could emphasize specific services, clarify policies, or correct misunderstandings with their own words.
AI-generated responses remove that control. Google’s algorithms will interpret business information and synthesize answers without owner input or approval. If the AI pulls from an outdated review or misunderstands a service description, businesses have limited recourse to correct it.
Marketing technology platforms that integrated Q&A management into broader reputation management suites must completely redesign workflows. Franchise management systems and multi-location retail operations that relied on centralized Q&A oversight face particular disruption.
“The change particularly impacts franchise management systems and multi-location retail operations that relied on centralized Q&A oversight,” according to local search industry analysis.
What Businesses Should Do Now
The immediate priority is ensuring Google Business Profile information is complete and accurate. AI systems can only work with the data they’re given. Incomplete profiles or vague service descriptions will result in incomplete or vague AI-generated answers.
Business owners should audit their profiles for:
- Detailed, keyword-rich service descriptions
- Current hours and holiday schedules
- Accurate category selections
- High-quality photos with descriptive captions
- Complete contact information
The AI will also rely heavily on customer reviews to answer questions. Businesses should develop review generation strategies that encourage customers to mention specific services, locations, and experiences in detail rather than simple star ratings.
According to industry recommendations, businesses should export and reuse old Q&A content, salvaging high-performing questions to repurpose in FAQ sections on websites, in business descriptions, and as structured content using FAQ schema markup.
Converting Q&A content into structured data on websites helps AI systems extract accurate information. FAQ schema, in particular, makes it easier for Google’s algorithms to understand and present business information correctly.
The Bigger Picture
Google’s Q&A deprecation fits within a larger transformation of local search. The company is moving away from static information displays toward conversational, AI-driven experiences that anticipate user needs.
Google Maps launched Gemini features that enable hands-free driving experiences where users can ask for restaurant recommendations, check EV charger availability, and get landmark-based navigation through voice commands.
The technology enables scenarios where customers point their camera at a storefront and ask questions like “Can I bring my dog inside?” with Gemini answering using location data and structured website information.
For businesses, this evolution demands a shift in strategy. Instead of answering individual questions on Google, they need to ensure all their digital infrastructure—website content, business profile information, directory listings, review content—works together to feed accurate information to AI systems.
The businesses that adapt fastest will be those that treat their entire online presence as interconnected data sources rather than separate platforms requiring individual management.
Platform Evolution or Platform Control?
Consumer advocates have questioned whether Google’s changes genuinely serve user interests or primarily serve Google’s strategic goals. Removing direct communication channels between businesses and customers concentrates more control in Google’s hands while reducing transparency.
When business owners answered Q&A questions directly, customers could evaluate the quality of communication and the business’s responsiveness. AI-generated answers obscure that evaluation, making it harder for consumers to judge how a business actually treats customers.
The change also raises accuracy concerns. Human-written answers, while sometimes incomplete or biased, came from people with direct knowledge of the business. AI-generated responses rely on algorithmic interpretation of data that may be incomplete, outdated, or simply misunderstood by the system.
Business owners retain full access to Q&A management through the Google Business Profile interface and can continue posting and responding to customer questions manually, but the API shutdown means agencies managing multiple locations must handle everything through Google’s consumer interface rather than enterprise tools.
Adapting to AI-First Search
The Q&A removal signals that Google views AI-mediated experiences as the future of local discovery. Businesses that resist this shift risk losing visibility as Google’s algorithms prioritize profiles optimized for AI interpretation.
The immediate action items are clear: complete profiles, structured data, strategic review generation, and consistent information across all platforms. But the long-term challenge involves rethinking customer communication for an environment where AI algorithms increasingly stand between businesses and their customers.
For eight years, Q&A provided a direct line of communication on the world’s most popular navigation platform. That line is now closed. What replaces it remains to be seen, but the direction is clear—fewer direct interactions, more algorithmic mediation, and greater dependence on Google’s AI systems to represent business accurately to potential customers.
Whether that serves businesses and consumers better than the system it replaces will become clear in the coming months as the AI features roll out and businesses adapt to yet another platform change they didn’t request but must accommodate.
| I’m Fahad Raza, an SEO consultant with 18+ years of experience witnessing search evolve from Yahoo’s human editors to today’s AI algorithms. After co-founding Right Click and leading IKEA’s SEO strategy, I launched KeywordProbe to help small businesses succeed with systematic, transparent SEO solutions. |
