Google has announced the release of V 4.0 of the Google My Business API. While there are a number of new  features, the most notable is the ability for 3rd Party platforms to now post Google Posts on for the businesses using the platform.

The API currently supports posting for any business with fewer than 10 locations. Large chains are not yet able to use the API for their postings. When larger chains might be able to post is unclear although Google seems to have been testing this feature.

In addition to the posting capabilities, the new version of the API supports

• multiple value attributes like credit cards accepted (Amex, Discover, Visa)
• Photos has been upgraded to Media to allow for richer media types like video in the future
• More granular notifications as to the types of notifications they wish to receive
• Notifications of reviews being updated
• Posts analytics such as times a Post was viewed or the CTA was clicked

The Google My Business API was first released in October 2015 and since then has had three major updates and numerous minor ones.

The API is still missing some critical features for agencies and tool providers like the inability for large chains to post or to be able to use a 3rd party platform for verification. But the regular updates are a positive sign that Google has finally committed to local on both the level of the SMB and larger users.

Here is the link to the announcement and the API Docs changelog.