Latest update from Google (5/28/2020):
Review replies and Q&A are now available in all countries.
The following services are currently unavailable:
- Reviews, photos, and Q&A for businesses in a narrow set of medical categories, such as hospitals and doctors' offices
- Q&A via API (Q&A in Reputation Management is still unavailable)
Important notice: Google has been publishing delayed user reviews. Reviews will appear with the date they were originally posted. Reviews are publishing gradually by country and business category.
Read Vendasta's blog for additional details.
Google My Business
*Items in red are the newest entries
| Issue | What is being affected | Last updated |
| Reviews | Reviews and review responses were disabled (announced 3/20/2020). Users who try and post reviews might think it's published, but will not be public. It is unknown if reviews attempted posting during this time will post after functionality has been restored. | 3/26/2020 |
| Review replies are now available. Over the coming weeks, new user reviews will be available, gradually expanding by country and business category. | 4/8/2020 | |
| It's been reported that reviews can now be left for shopping and restaurant categories worldwide. Other categories have not yet been restored. | 4/17/2020 | |
| We have seen delayed user reviews return to our system. | 4/28/2020 | |
| New review alert emails from Google have returned but may be delayed by up to a day. | 5/15/2020 | |
| Reviews are now available in all countries. May not be available for a narrow set of medical businesses. | 5/28/2020 | |
| Questions & Answers | Q&A disabled and hidden on all Google listings. | 3/20/2020 |
| Over the coming weeks, Google Q&A will be available, gradually expanding by country and business category. | 4/8/2020 | |
| We have seen some Google Questions & Answers return to our system. This is still being rolled out gradually by country/category by Google. Some Google listings still have the Questions function hidden. | 4/24/2020 | |
| Q&A is now available in all countries. May not be available for a narrow set of medical businesses. Q&A is not available in Reputation Management. | 5/28/2020 | |
| Edits | Expect delays when editing business information. Google is prioritizing healthcare-related businesses and critical edits such as hours. | 3/20/2020 |
| Photos | Reports of all user-updated photos removed from listings. Photos uploaded by the business are unaffected. | 3/23/2020 |
| Over the coming weeks, new user photos will be available, gradually expanding by country and business category. | 4/8/2020 | |
| Delayed user photos will begin to be published to Google Maps. | 4/28/2020 | |
| User photos are now available in all countries. | 5/28/2020 | |
| Posts | Google has released a new post type called COVID-19 Update. | 3/26/2020 |
| Business posts were temporarily disabled for some businesses and have since resumed. Google is working to reprocess previously rejected posts. | 3/30/2020 | |
| Temporary Closure | You can now mark a business as Temporarily Closed from the GMB dashboard. Google has noted to only use this feature if the business is actually closed. | 3/25/2020 |
| Short names | New short names are now unavailable. | 3/30/2020 |
| Over the coming weeks, new short names will be available, gradually expanding by country and business category. | 4/8/2020 | |
| Videos | All videos are now unavailable | 4/02/2020 |
Yelp
| Issue | What is being affected | Last updated |
| Review moderation | Yelp announced more strict restrictions on reviews that mention COVID-19, complain about being closed due to COVID-19, or insinuate someone caught the virus from a restaurant. | 3/20/2020 |
| Temporary Closure | You can now mark a business as Temporarily Closed from the Yelp dashboard. You must include a re-open date. | 3/26/2020 |
| Pickup and delivery | Enables business owners to easily indicate if they’re only open for delivery and takeout. | 3/20/2020 |
| Fundraising | In partnership with GoFundMe. A new, fast and simple way for independent businesses to accept donations through their Yelp pages. | 3/24/2020 |
| Special Advisory | Yelp has added a COVID-19 Advisory banner to every listing. | 3/26/2020 |
How will this affect your clients?
Reputation Management
- Clients may now respond to Google reviews
- Clients may see new reviews coming in that were delayed due to the hiatus