Google Additional Hours API Update

Product/Library Releases & New Features Knowledge Graph Updates
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On February 25th, 2021, Google launched version 4.9 of its Google My Business (GMB) API. This update includes support for additional hours types. These hours can be added to entities by enabling the ‘Additional Hours Fields’ feature under the Account Features section of your Yext Account Settings.

This feature allows you to specify unique hours of operation for options such as delivery, drive-through, and more. For example, your bank branch might be open from 9am - 5pm on Monday, but your bank drive-through is available from 8:30am - 6pm.

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The types of additional hours include:

  • Online Service Hours
  • Access Hours
  • Senior Hours
  • Pickup Hours
  • Kitchen Hours
  • Takeout Hours
  • Delivery Hours
  • Drive-Through Hours
  • Brunch Hours
  • Happy Hour Hours

And now, you can update these Additional Hours in Yext and sync them to GMB. The Hours types available to your entity depend on both the Yext entity type and the GMB category.

Hours supported for each entity type are as follows:

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Enable Additional Hours Fields

To enable the Additional Hours fields, navigate to the Account Features section of Account Settings and enable the ‘Additional Hours Fields’ feature.

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For steps to turn on account features, visit the Turn on Account Features On or Off Help Article, or the Account Features training module.

Once enabled, the available Additional Hours fields will be added in the Other Fields section of your entity profiles in the Knowledge Graph.

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Once you update these fields for the relevant Additional Hours, we will sync the information to your Google My Business account.

Note: Although the Additional Hours fields include Holiday Hours and Temporarily Closed sub-fields, these sub-fields will not be sycned to Google.

Additionally, make sure you have primary hours filled in for the entity, as primary hours are required in order to sync additional hours to GMB.

1 Like
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Great info! Very nicely summarized, thanks for taking advantage of this new API feature and extending it to your clients.
I notice Holiday Hours aren’t mentioned. My Holiday Hours are accurate in Yext, but this does not sync to Google My Business. Is this available? Or is there another help article that can assist with this? Thank you!

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Hi Sandra,

Thanks for the great feedback on the additional Google hours!

Holiday hours are part of existing Knowledge Graph fields we sync to Google and other publishers. If your holidays hours are set for dates more than 1 week out, they likely won’t appear on your listings yet. Holiday hours will appear to customers on Google only for the designated days–they are often shown the week of when clicking into the full week’s hours–with formatting designating that these are “special hours.”

More information on holiday hours can be found in this help article or this community post by Liz.

Let us know if you have any further questions!

Thanks,
Jamie

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Hi @Caroline_Gould,

I am working with a Gym/Fitness account, and the clients would like to utilize the Additional Hours > Access Hours fields. While their gyms are technically 24/7 - as listed in the Knowledge Graph under the “Hours” Field - GMB has rejected the Access Hours information as it does not support Additional Hours for Locations with the Primary Category, “Gym.”

My clients are currently utilizing only one Category, and that is the Primary Category, “Gym.”

Do we have a running list of accepted categories for clients in the Fitness Industry to utilize Additional Hours?

@Wendy_Zhao & @Anushree_Godbole for visibility.

GMB Limitation, Additional Hours

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Hi @Caroline_Gould & Team,

Upon further investigation, it appears that GMB Listings cannot broadcast an additional set of hours for brands using “gym” or “fitness center” as the Primary Category. This appears to be a limitation by Google.

Best,
Miriam

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Hi Team,

If Regular Hours are equivalent to additional hours (such as a bank having the same Drive-Through hours as Regular Hours), do I need to specify them on both fields to appear on Listings?

Thanks!

Juan