Google Phone update makes it even easier to message businesses

Google Phone used to be a pretty basic dialer app when it came out, but it has greatly enhanced its capabilities and feature set over the past couple of years. It now offers call recording, spam and fraud caller detection, Automatic Call Screen, and much more. In its most recent updates, it gained a basic Caller ID feature as well as the ability to always record calls from unknown numbers. Now it’s preparing to add another useful feature. In the latest version, Google is testing a new Chat button that will seamlessly allow users to text businesses.

As spotted by Android Police’s Artem Russakovskii, the latest beta of the Google Phone app is adding a new Chat button that appears alongside the Call button when you dial a business number.

Just saw this “Chat” button for the first time in the Google Phone app, with a first-time callout pointing out this feature.

I know business messaging has been a thing for a while, but is it new in the Phone app?

Anyone else seen this before? pic.twitter.com/CSyifnNkbX

— Artem Russakovskii (@ArtemR) June 19, 2021

The chat button will only appear when contacting a verified business. When you click on it, it will open up a chat window and connect you to a live agent. To be clear, the ability to message businesses itself is not new. Android users have long been able to chat with businesses directly from Google Maps and Search results. However, this integration of business messaging within the Google Phone app is definitely new.

As mentioned earlier, the Chat button comes as part of the latest beta of the Google Phone app. It’s not live in the stable app just yet. To try it out, you will need to join the Google Phone beta program on the Google Play Store.

Phone by Google (Free, Google Play) →

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