Google reviews

When the review step is live, the person who has just left you a voicegram will see their own message written out as text on the confirmation screen. They will be able to edit it, then tap one button that copies the text and opens the Google review page for that location in a new tab. Choosing a rating, pasting, and posting stays theirs to do, and closing the tab without posting is always an option.

Add your locations

Google reviews lives under Integrations, Google reviews. It is a library: every Google Business Profile you want visitors sent to, each with a short name you choose. Adding and editing locations is for workspace admins, on the Starter plan and up. You accept the review policy acknowledgement once, and that is what opens the add controls. There is no switch to turn on.

There are two ways to add:

• Paste a link. Paste the review link for one profile and give it a name, like "Downtown" or "Airport". The link is checked as you paste it.
• Add many at once. Open "Add many", then either paste or type one location per line, link and name in either order, or choose a CSV file with two columns. A comma, a semicolon or a space can separate them, quoted cells are fine, and a name can contain spaces and commas, so a spreadsheet export works as it is. Up to 10,000 lines and about a megabyte at a time; for anything larger, split the list and add it in parts. You see exactly what will happen before anything is saved: the counts first, then any lines to fix, then the rest. Nothing is written until you press the button at the bottom. If a link is already in your library, its name is updated rather than duplicated. There is a template to download if you would rather start from one.

Searching Google for your business by name is not part of this release, so paste the link for now. The search box beside your list searches the locations you have already added, not Google.

Names are required, can be up to 80 characters, and have to be different from each other inside your workspace, so you can tell them apart when choosing; two names that differ only in capitalisation count as the same name. Each link appears once in a workspace. Two workspaces can hold the same name and the same link.

Find your Google review link

In your Google Business Profile, open Read reviews, then Get more reviews, then Copy. This is easier on a computer. Google's instructions for that screen assume a desktop browser, and the QR code offered alongside the link cannot be generated on a phone.

That link is the one we recommend, and it is not the only shape we accept. A link is accepted if it is one of these three:

• The Business Profile link above, which looks like https://g.page/r/<code>/review.
• A https://search.google.com/local/writereview?placeid=<id> link.
• A https://www.google.com/maps/place/... link that opens the write-a-review form. A Maps link that opens your business's page instead is refused, and so is one that opens a review form naming no business at all, because saving either would leave your settings looking configured while sending people somewhere they cannot post from.

Two links that often get pasted are refused:

• A shortened maps.app.goo.gl link. This is what the Share button in Google Maps produces, and it hides where it points, so we cannot check it. Open the short link in a browser, let it finish loading, and copy the full address out of the address bar. If it was a write-a-review link, that full address is one we accept.
• A maps.google.com link. Copy the address from the www.google.com version of the same page instead.

The link is checked as you paste it, and a tidied version of it is what gets saved. If yours is refused, the message on screen tells you where to find the Business Profile link, which always works.

Choosing which location a widget or campaign sends people to happens in Global Branding and on each widget and campaign page, once that step ships.

Why the visitor pastes it themselves

Google's review form does not accept text from a link, and Google provides no way for another company to post a review on someone's behalf. So the last two steps are always the visitor's: they paste their words and press Post.

That is the point as much as it is a limitation. The review has to be the customer's own, or it is not a review.

Where the text comes from

The text is the visitor's own message, transcribed. It is not written for them.

Short messages, under about 25 words, are kept exactly as they were transcribed: the cleanup step is not run on them at all. The same is true of a message in any language other than English. On longer English messages the cleanup drops filler and false starts. It can only remove words, never add or change them, so everything in the box will be something the visitor actually said.

Phone numbers, email addresses, and web links are taken out before the text is stored, so they do not end up in a public review, and the visitor will be told when that happened. They will be able to edit anything before they copy it.

The rules, and who carries the risk

You can put your review link or a QR code on receipts, table tents, and thank-you emails. Google suggests exactly that. What Google bans is pressure:

• Do not hand a customer a store phone or tablet to post from.
• Do not stand with them while they post.
• Do not make posting a condition of anything, and do not give anything in return for a review: no discount, no free item, no giveaway entry.
• Do not ask for particular wording, a particular rating, or a mention of a member of staff by name.
• Do not set review targets for your staff.

If a customer scans a code while they are in your store, that is fine. Whether and when to post is their decision.

Two more, both easy to do by accident:

• Do not send an old customer list the link all at once. A burst of reviews looks like manipulation even when every one of them is real.
• Do not follow up about reviews with some senders and not others. Following up only with the happy ones is review gating, and it is one of the things Google acts on. Voicegram will not do it for you either: the review step will be offered to every sender in the same words, nothing on this path reads whether a message was happy or angry, and there is no setting that would change that.

The acknowledgement you accept before adding your first location is this list in short form. Accepting it records that you have read it. It is not a shield: if Google decides you crossed a line, it is your profile that carries the consequence.

What gets counted

Once the visitor half is live, Voicegram will record one thing after the visitor acts: that they copied their text, or that they opened your review link. Either one counts as taking the review step.

Google does not tell us, or you, whether a review was actually posted. Taking the step is a sign of interest, not a review in hand. The count of reviews you have is the one on your own profile.

What happens after you add a location

Adding a location saves it to your library and does nothing else. No review text is prepared, nothing is shown to anyone who leaves you a voicegram, and no counts move. Your library is the list a widget or campaign will choose from, and choosing is what will start review text being prepared for every voicegram recorded after that. That step has not shipped yet.

There is nothing to test end to end today. Recording a test message on your own site or campaign page will not show you a review step. When the visitor half goes live, we will tell you, and that is the point to try it yourself.