Late last week, Google released a new mobile app for their “Google My Business” service that will deliver a more enhanced experience for business owners managing their online business listing on Google Maps. The goal of the new app is to deliver a similar experience to that of the desktop while improving the previous visual experience on the mobile version of Google My Business.
The new features that accompany the app will include:
- An Improved Editor.
- Easier to find listings on Maps and search.
- More detailed pending and error states.
- Listings that are permanently closed are now visible via the app.
- Improved hour entry and better support for 24 hour business days.
- Creating a service area display is more intuitive and the service area display now matches Maps.
- Help is more visible.
The new app is part of an effort by Google to attract more Small-Medium size Businesses (SMB) to use their local listing platform. It is unclear how the introduction of Google’s new app will perform, given Googles recently reduced exposure of their Google Plus service and SMBs relying more on Facebook as a communication platform. The new app does not fully explain how businesses will benefit from using the Google My Business app outside of reading reviews and answering customer questions.
Overall the Google My Business app is a step in the right direction with an enhanced user interface and intuitive design. We can only wait and see if businesses will actually adopt the mobile app as a tool to be used on a daily basis.