The old advice is out of date
For years, a standard item on every dental marketing checklist was to post your own questions on your Google Business Profile and answer them: parking, insurance, what to bring to a first visit. Google has changed how questions work on Business Profiles, and that advice no longer fits. This post, part of our Grow Your Practice Online series, sets out what Google actually said and when, what we could not confirm, and a 15-minute update you can make this week.
What Google said, with dates
The change came in steps. Where Google said something itself, we quote it; where the source is trade press or practitioners, we say so.
- September 15, 2025. Google's developer changelog announced it would discontinue the Q&A API on November 3, "as we are in the process of updating the Q&A functionality and user experience."
- October 2025. A Local Search Forum user reported on October 23, 2025 that the "Ask a question" button had disappeared from the profiles they manage. Another user reported the same the next day, and in November the original poster said it was gone from every profile they manage. These are practitioner reports, not Google statements.
- November 3, 2025. Google's changelog: "The My Business Q&A API was discontinued on November 3, 2025. You can no longer read or post questions and answers using the API." Any software that managed your Q&A could no longer read or post questions after that date.
- December 3, 2025. In a Business Profile Community post titled "A heads up about the upcoming changes to the Q&A feature," a forum Community Specialist (the badge Google gives "Google partners who help ensure the quality of community content") wrote that "customers can ask their question directly in Google Maps and get an updated, instant answer based on your answers and relevant reviews." The same post says owners "can continue to answer existing questions" and that published questions and answers "will continue to power Google's understanding of the real world and may be shown in Maps."
- March 12, 2026. Google launched Ask Maps, a conversational way to ask Maps questions that Google says brings together its map "with our most capable Gemini models," rolling out first in the U.S. and India. Google says that to build itineraries it analyzes "information from over 300 million places" "including reviews from our community of more than 500 million contributors."
What we could not confirm
Trade coverage, such as BrightLocal's, describes Ask Maps as the replacement for Q&A. Neither Google's March blog post nor the December forum post draws that line in so many words: the forum post describes answers in Maps, and the blog post describes Ask Maps, without naming each other.
Q&A has not vanished from Google's help pages either. The edit-your-profile help page still has a Q&A section, says the feature "is available only for select business categories and regions," and describes a pilot in which verified US businesses answer attribute questions with "Yes," "No" or "Skip."
Google has not published which business categories get Ask Maps or the Q&A pilot. A third-party claim that some healthcare categories are excluded circulates in trade coverage; we could not confirm it with Google, so we are not repeating it as fact. Its original source, a Search Engine Journal piece about an earlier Maps feature, reported finding that feature on dentist profiles. Check your own profile rather than anyone's list, ours included.
Where your answers live now
The December forum post says answers in Maps are built from "your answers and relevant reviews," and Ask Maps draws on its information about places. Either way, the answer a patient gets about your practice can only be as current as what Google already holds. For a dental office, the questions that matter are the ones a wrong answer costs you: whether you take a plan, whether you see emergencies, whether you are open the day after a holiday. Put those facts where Google and patients can read them:
- Services, one per treatment, with a plain description. Our post on Google Business Profile rules for dentists covers the limits.
- The description, up to 750 characters and no URLs. Good for the facts patients ask most, such as new patients, emergencies and payment options.
- Hours and special hours, including holiday and continuing-education closures.
- The booking link, pointing at the page where patients actually request a visit.
- Your website, with plain answers to the questions your front desk hears every day. That is where patients go next anyway.
A 15-minute update for this week
Do these in order. None needs an agency.
- Open your profile in the Google Maps app on your phone and look for a Q&A button. If you have one and see attribute questions, answer them accurately. Google notes that "Responses to these attribute questions cannot be edited or deleted on mobile devices," so take care.
- If old questions and answers still show on your profile, read them. The December forum post says they still feed Google's understanding of your practice, so correct anything stale, such as old hours or a plan you no longer take.
- Move the useful answers into the fields listed above: services, description and hours.
- Check that your booking link opens the right page on a phone.
- On your phone, search your practice in Google Maps. If Ask Maps is available to you, ask it the two questions your front desk hears most and read what it says. If an answer is wrong, check your profile fields, reviews and website for where it came from and fix that.
- Replace "answer Q&As" on staff checklists with "monthly: check the Q&A button for attribute questions and keep existing answers current." If an agency bills for Q&A management, ask what it does now that the API closed on November 3, 2025.
Where this fits
Q&A was always a small part of a Business Profile. The fields that carry weight, from categories to practitioner listings, are in our dentist-specific profile guide. For how the profile fits with reviews and your website, see our guide to ranking for "dentist near me", and for the general walkthrough, our Business Profile setup guide.
Want us to check your profile?
Request a free audit and we will record a video walkthrough of your local search presence, including your Business Profile, and point out anything stale. If you are at the San Diego Dental Convention on November 20-21, 2026, come by Booth 9 and we can look at it with you.