Not Getting Google Review Notifications? Work Through This Fix List

If you are not getting Google review notifications, the cause is usually one of five things: you’re signed in to a different Google account than the one that manages the profile, the “Customer activity” notification is off for that account, the emails are being filtered away from your inbox, your phone blocks notifications from the Google Maps app, or the account manages so many listings that Google has stopped emailing it. Work through the list below in order. The first four take a few minutes to check. The last one can’t be fixed with a setting.

Key takeaways

• Check the account before the setting. Notifications belong to a Google account, not to the business, so start with the login. It’s the quickest thing to rule out.
• The switch is called “Customer activity”. It lives under More → Notifications in your Business Profile, and under Business → Notifications in the Google Maps app.
• Every owner and manager sets up their own. Nothing is shared across a team.
• Accounts with 100+ listings are reported to get no review emails at all, whatever the settings say (Sterling Sky, 2021).
• Google has no test button. If a missed 1-star review costs you money, don’t rely on a system you can’t test.

Why are you not getting Google review notifications? The checklist

1. Are you signed in to the account that manages the profile?

Open Google Search, check the profile picture at the top right, and search for your business name. If you don’t see the management view of your Business Profile (the row with Edit profile, Read reviews and so on), this Google account isn’t an owner or manager, and it will never get review notifications. This happens a lot: the profile was claimed years ago with a personal Gmail, an agency’s login, or a former employee’s address.

Fix: sign in with the account that does manage it, then add the address you actually use: More → Business Profile settings → People and access → Add, enter the email, choose Owner or Manager, and send the invite. Google’s page on owners and managers explains the roles. Both owners and managers can read and answer reviews.

2. Is “Customer activity” switched on for that account?

Google’s help page, Manage your notifications, gives the path:

• Computer: your Business Profile → More → Notifications → switch on Customer activity (Google: alerts when customers leave new reviews or add photos).
• Phone: Google Maps app → Business (bottom right) → Notifications (top right).

Check it for every person who should get the alerts. The setting is per Google account, so the owner having it on does nothing for the managers.

3. Is your phone blocking the Maps app?

Push notifications about reviews come through the Google Maps app. If notifications for Maps are off in the phone’s own settings, nothing in your Business Profile can override that. On iPhone: Settings → Notifications → Google Maps. On Android: Settings → Apps → Maps → Notifications. Also make sure the Maps app is signed in to the managing account, not a personal one.

4. Are the emails arriving and being filed somewhere else?

Search your mailbox for the name of a customer who reviewed you recently. If the notification turns up in spam, in a Promotions or Updates tab, or under a label created by an old filter, mark it as not spam and add a filter that keeps mail from Google in the inbox. If your business address is a shared mailbox or a forwarding alias (info@, office@), check the rules there too. Forwarding rules are easy to forget and easy to break.

5. Is the review actually live?

If a customer tells you they left a review and you got no notification, open your profile and look for it. If the review isn’t visible there either, the problem isn’t your notifications: Google may still be checking the review, or may have filtered it. Those cases have their own guides: Google review pending and Google review not showing up.

6. Does the account manage a lot of listings?

Joy Hawkins of Sterling Sky documented this in May 2021: once an account manages more than 100 listings, Google stops sending it review emails, and the notification settings make no difference. Her workaround:

1. Split the listings into location groups of fewer than 100 each.
2. Create a separate Google account for each group and add it as a user of that group only.
3. Forward each of those accounts’ mail to your real inbox.

This mostly hits agencies and franchise head offices. But check how many profiles your login can actually see in the Business Profile Manager at business.google.com: old duplicates, closed locations and client profiles you were added to years ago may all still be there.

7. Did it stop for everyone at once?

Sometimes it’s Google. In May 2025, several agencies on the Local Search Forum reported that review emails had stopped across their accounts for days, one of them on an account with 75 profiles. In early July, people in the same thread described a sudden flood of notification emails. If every setting is right and the emails stopped on the same day for every profile you manage, check the forum and the Google Business Profile community before you change anything.

Quick reference: symptom, likely cause, fix

What you see	Likely cause	What to do
Never had a single review email	Wrong Google account, or “Customer activity” is off	Steps 1 and 2
The owner gets emails, managers don’t	Settings are per Google account	Each manager does step 2 in their own account
Emails yes, phone notifications no	Maps notifications blocked on the phone, or Maps signed in to another account	Step 3
Emails used to come, now nothing	Filter, spam or a broken forwarding rule	Step 4
A customer says they reviewed, no notification, and the review isn’t on the profile	The review isn’t live	Step 5
An agency or head-office login gets nothing	100+ listings on the account	Step 6
Stopped for every profile on the same day	A problem on Google’s side	Step 7, then wait

When is fixing Google’s emails not enough?

Say you’ve fixed it and the emails are flowing again. For one owner with one location, you’re done, and you don’t need to buy anything.

With several locations and several people, four limits remain, and no setting removes them:

• You can’t test it. There’s no test button. The next time it breaks, you’ll find out the way you did this time: by stumbling on a review that has been sitting there for days.
• It reaches Google accounts, not people. You can’t add ops@yourcompany.com, a district manager who isn’t on the profile, or a team chat.
• It can’t tell a 1-star review from a 5-star one. Everything arrives the same way, so the urgent one gets buried at your busiest location.
• Nothing shows who is handling it. Three managers get the same email and each assumes another one replied.

That is the gap ReputeMap’s alerts are built for:

• A star line you choose: 1★ only, up to 2★, up to 3★ (the default) or up to 4★. Only new reviews at or below it alert you, once each, within minutes of the review being detected.
• Email to any addresses, pasted in as a list. Add nobody and alerts go to all owners and admins of the workspace.
• Telegram in one tap: press Connect, tap Start. A private chat or your team’s group. No bot to build.
• WhatsApp with one message, for up to 5 numbers per workspace. WhatsApp connects once your workspace is on full access — any paid plan; during the trial that’s one click on the Alerts page.
• One “Send a test alert” button that tests every switched-on channel and reports per channel. If something is off, the page says so in plain words, for example “Not live yet · connect Google”.
• An alert history showing where each alert was delivered, with an Acknowledge button so the team can see who picked it up.

Keep Google’s notifications on as well. They’re free, and two alarms are better than one.

Where ReputeMap fits

ReputeMap is Google review software for owners and operators of 1 to 30 locations: every location’s reviews in one inbox, AI reply drafts you approve, plus opt-in Auto-reply for new 4–5★ reviews on paid plans, honest review requests by email and QR code, negative-review alerts, and one monthly report across all locations.

Email, Telegram and WhatsApp alerts are part of every plan — solo at $19/mo for one location, starter at $29/mo for up to 5, growth at $79/mo for up to 15 and pro at $129/mo for up to 30. locations are included, and every plan starts with a 14-day free trial (card required, $0 today). whatsapp connects once you’re on full access — during the trial that’s one click on the alerts page.

Start your 14-day free trial, connect Google, and press “Send a test alert”. The step-by-step setup is in the docs: Negative-review alerts: email, Telegram and WhatsApp. For the bigger picture, see the hub on Google review notifications.

Sources

• Google Business Profile Help, Manage your notifications and Manage owners and managers.
• Joy Hawkins, Sterling Sky, How to Get Review Notifications When You Manage Over 100 Google My Business Listings, May 2021.
• Local Search Forum, Review Notifications thread, May to July 2025.

ReputeMap is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google, Telegram, WhatsApp or Meta.