Field guide · November 10, 2026

Google Killed GBP Q&A. Ask Maps Is Answering for You Now

Classic GBP Q&A is gone: Google discontinued the Q&A API on November 3, 2025, and by January 2026 it no longer appeared on profiles. Customers now tap Ask Maps in the Google Maps app, and Gemini answers from your description, services, hours, photos, posts, reviews, and website. You cannot edit what it says. You can only fix what it reads.

For years, the advice for electricians was to seed their GBP Q&A section: post your own top ten questions from a personal account, answer them from the business account, and monitor for wrong answers from strangers. That advice is now dead, because the section it was about no longer exists. Google discontinued the Q&A API on November 3, 2025, saying it was updating the experience, and by January 2026 Whitespark reported that classic Q&A no longer appeared on profiles.

What replaced it is Ask Maps, a Gemini feature in the Google Maps app that writes answers from your description, services, hours, photos, posts, reviews, and website. A homeowner standing at a breaker box asks which electrician nearby can come tonight, and an AI answers. If your Sunday hours are wrong, that is what it reads.

What actually changed

The Q&A removal is the latest in a run of GBP features Google has switched off without much notice. Business Profile chat and call history went dark on July 31, 2024. The free business.site websites went dark too. The Q&A box is the one that matters most for electricians, because it was the place customers asked the questions that decide a call: are you open Sunday, do you come out to my town, how soon can you get here.

Ask Maps does not have a dashboard, an edit button, or an appeal process. Not every category has the feature yet, but it is spreading, and the direction is clear: Google is moving from fields the owner fills in to answers the AI assembles from everything it can read about the business. The profile is no longer just a listing. It is the data feed for the answer.

Feed the AI that answers for you

Open Google Maps, find your business, and ask it the three questions customers ask you most: are you open Sunday, do you come out to my town, how soon can you get here. If it fumbles the town question, give it a sentence to read. Put it in your description, in plain words: family-owned electrician based in your town, serving the four or five towns you actually cover, taking same-day calls until 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, closed Sundays. The AI quotes what it can find, so the sentence has to exist somewhere it reads.

Then check the rest of the feed. Your services list should carry the jobs customers actually book, each as its own entry, because that is where Ask Maps looks for whether you do EV chargers or panel upgrades. Your hours should be right, including holiday hours. Your reviews should be answered, because review text is one of the sources the AI draws on, and a review that mentions fast emergency response is a fact the AI can repeat.

What to stop doing

Stop seeding Q&A. There is nowhere to seed it anymore, and the old playbook of posting questions from a personal account has no target. Stop treating the description as a slogan, too. A description that says quality workmanship at fair prices gives the AI nothing to answer with, while a description that names the towns, the hours, and the emergency policy gives it everything.

And stop assuming Google will tell you when the next feature disappears. The Q&A removal arrived with a short API notice and no email to owners. Check the profile the way a customer does, once a month, and ask it the questions your customers ask. If the answer is wrong, the fix is in your description, your services, or your hours, not in a setting that no longer exists.

Frequently asked questions

Does Google Business Profile still have Q&A?

No. Google discontinued the Q&A API on November 3, 2025, and by January 2026 classic Q&A no longer appeared on profiles. The Google Maps app now shows an Ask Maps feature on many profiles, with AI answers drawn from reviews, websites, and other sources.

What is Ask Maps?

It is a Gemini feature in the Google Maps app that answers customer questions from your description, services, hours, photos, posts, reviews, and website. Owners cannot post or answer there, so the answers depend entirely on how accurate and complete the profile and website are.

How do I control what Ask Maps says about my business?

You cannot edit its answers directly. You fix what it reads: put the towns you serve, your hours, and your emergency policy in plain language in your description and service descriptions, keep hours accurate, and keep reviews answered, since review text is one of its sources.

When did Google remove GBP chat?

Google turned off Business Profile chat and call history on July 31, 2024. Texting, WhatsApp, and booking options now depend on the account, category, and region, and none of them replace the Q&A section that is gone.