June 16, 2026

Manage your business with Gemini

Plus: Gemini 3.5 Live Translate.
Evelyn Le
By
Evelyn Le
Editor, Lead with AI

Gemini now connects directly to your Google Business Profile

Presented by

Google is rolling out new Gemini features designed for small businesses, starting with a direct connection to Google Business Profile and a new Business notebooks experience. Gemini is moving from a general chatbot into a context-aware business partner that can understand your brand, customers, reviews, performance data, and daily operational needs.

Here are the key updates:

  • Connect your Google Business Profile to Gemini: Business owners will be able to securely connect their Google Business Profile to Gemini, giving it access to real business context such as customer reviews, customer questions, search impressions, calls, direction requests, and engagement data.
  • Turn business data into action: You can ask questions like “How did my business do this month?” and Gemini can analyze profile performance, surface useful trends, and suggest what to do next.
  • Respond to customers faster: Gemini can help draft tailored replies to customer reviews using the specific feedback left by the customer and your business’s brand voice.
  • Update your profile from chat: Gemini can help with practical tasks like updating opening hours, posting seasonal updates, or identifying gaps in your business profile.
  • Business notebooks create a central workspace: The new Business notebooks will let you organize chats, sources, your website, and your Google Business Profile in one place, so Gemini can keep working from your business context.
  • Proactive recommendations: Business notebooks can surface critical action items, such as unanswered customer questions or missing holiday hours, and recommend next steps for pricing, positioning, campaigns, and daily operations.

Both features are available in the Gemini app and rolling out globally this month, excluding the EEA and UK. Google has also indicated that Workspace and Gemini offers tied to these features are coming soon.

For small businesses, this could mean saving a significant time switching between reviews, analytics, marketing tasks, and customer responses.

​Explore Gemini’s new business features

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