What happened to the Questions & Answers section on my Google Business Profile?
Google took it away. The Questions & Answers section on Business Profiles is gone: Google discontinued the Q&A API that outside tools used on November 3, 2025, and on December 3, 2025 it confirmed it was removing the Q&A feature customers saw. In its place, through 2026, Google has been adding a Gemini-powered “Ask Maps” button, which answers people’s questions from your reviews, your profile data and your own website. The old advice to seed your profile with your own questions and answers no longer applies. The practical move now is making sure those three sources say the right things.
What changed, and when
- November 3, 2025: Google discontinued the Q&A part of its Business Profile API, according to its developer change log. Software that posted or answered questions for you lost that connection.
- December 3, 2025: Google confirmed it was removing the consumer Q&A feature, as reported by PPC Land and Search Engine Roundtable.
- Through 2026: the replacement is an “Ask Maps” button powered by Gemini, Google’s AI, which answers from reviews, profile data and the business’s own website.
If you once spent time writing careful answers in that section, the section they lived in is gone. That’s frustrating, but the questions customers asked are still worth keeping. They are your best list of what to put somewhere you control.
What Ask Maps reads, and what you can do about it
Your profile. Fill in every field that applies to you: hours (including holiday hours), services, the description, and the other details the profile lets you add. A blank field is a question the AI has to answer from somewhere else, or not at all.
Your own website. This is the one source where you write every word. Add a plain questions page that answers what people actually ask, in the words they use on the phone: Do you take walk-ins? Do you speak Spanish? Where do I park? How does booking work? What happens on a first visit? Short, direct answers beat polished marketing copy here, because a reader, human or AI, has to find the fact fast.
Your reviews. You don’t write them, but you can ask for them: ask every customer, the same way, with a plain link — not just the ones you expect to be happy. Never fake them, never buy them, and never trade discounts for them.
The same groundwork helps beyond Google. Yelp’s AI assistant reads the same kinds of sources, and so do other assistants people use to find a local business, which we cover in how to get AI assistants to recommend your business.
What not to expect
No one can promise what Ask Maps will say about you. Be cautious with anyone who offers to control its answers for a fee; the sources it reads are the lever you have, and you can work them yourself. If the button shows up for your business, try it the way a customer would and see whether the answers match the truth. If something is wrong, trace it to the source: an old hour on the profile, an outdated page on your site, and fix it there.
If your profile is already complete and your website already answers the common questions, there is nothing new you need to buy because of this change. Keep both current and you’ve done the part that’s in your hands.