In two lines: the reviews of your Google Business listings can come into the Inbox and be answered from there, by your team or by the AI Community Manager. They're turned on separately, and nothing is published on Google on its own until the account gives its permission.

Answering every review —the good ones too— shows whoever is choosing where to go that there's someone on the other side. In the Inbox, reviews stop living in a separate tab: they share the tray, filters, assignments and alerts with the rest of your conversations, and the stars tell you what to answer first.

How do I bring them into the Inbox?

You need the Inbox turned on and your Google Business listing connected — the same one Local SEO uses (see Manage your Google Business listing (Local SEO)). Turning on the tray doesn't bring reviews in: they're turned on separately.
In Social Media > Inbox, open Settings > General. In Sources per network, the Google Business row brings a Reviews column, off to start with. Turn it on.
Before bringing anything in, MB Suite asks Turn on Google reviews? and tells you what will happen: the reviews your listing already had come in as read or replied —no alerts and no automatic replies, so nobody answers the old ones all at once—, and new ones arrive every 15 minutes. Confirm with Turn on reviews.

Turning the column off stops new reviews; whatever already came in stays in the tray. And if you manage several branches, each listing counts as an account of its own: you can filter by it and give it its own AI Community Manager.

What does a review look like in the tray?

Each review is its own conversation, with the Google Business logo, its stars and the listing it belongs to; if the person only left stars, it says No comment, stars only. When you open it, the Review on Google card shows the stars, the date and any photos, Show Google translation when Google translated the text (the tray keeps the original), View in Local SEO and View on Google.

To find them, use Filters: Review under Type and the Stars block; and in the sort order, Fewest stars first puts the ones that need you most at the top. Reviews don't go through the Analyst or use AI credits to come in: their sentiment comes from the stars —1 and 2, negative; 3, neutral; 4 and 5, positive—. And they can't be sent to the CRM: Google only gives the name the person displays, not who they are.

How do I reply to a review?

Open it and write in Public reply. Your reply is published on Google as the owner's reply, and anyone can see it. AI draft works here too.
Each review takes a single reply. If it already has one —sent from MB Suite or from Local SEO, or written straight on Google—, the box switches to Edit reply: Use the current reply brings in the published one so you can fix it, and Replace reply swaps it on Google.
Google reviews every reply before showing it on the listing, and while it does, your reply can read Under review by Google. If Google rejects it, it reads Rejected by Google, the review goes back to Needs attention —with Google's reason, when it gives one— and you can edit the reply and send it again.

Local SEO and the Inbox look at the same review. What you reply from the Inbox shows up in SEO > Local SEO, in the Reviews tab, and what you reply or delete there is reflected in the Inbox right away. MB Suite also notices a reply written straight on Google: the review moves to Replied, and nothing goes out on top of it without you deciding. To delete a reply, do it from Local SEO with Delete reply: the Inbox doesn't delete replies.

If the author or Google deletes a review, it leaves the tray as soon as MB Suite finds out —for example, when someone tries to reply to it—, with a notice that it's no longer on Google.

How does the AI Community Manager handle them?

It handles each review like a comment, with the same modes and the same setup. It only takes reviews if they're in its Territory: the positions you create from now on come with the Reviews column on, while the ones you already had don't see reviews until you turn it on —the Territory tab reminds you—. In the Behavior tab, the Google reviews block adds two settings of its own:

Replies on its own to…: Only 5 stars, 4 and 5 stars (the default), All or None. It only matters in Auto-reply: reviews inside that cut are published on their own, and the rest stay with a suggested reply and move to Needs attention for someone on your team to review. In Suggest drafts, every review stays as a suggestion.
Sensitive reviews go to a person (on by default): a good review with a complaint or a request, or one that alleges something serious —damage, a legal, health or safety issue, or someone on your team—, goes to a person with a suggested reply and the reason in view, in both modes. The notice also reminds you that, if the review looks fake or offensive, you can ask Google to review it.

It writes short, warm replies that differ from your listing's latest ones —Google filters out cookie-cutter replies—; it doesn't argue, admit fault or make promises, and if there's a problem it offers the contact channel it has loaded instead of asking for details in public. It also answers reviews that only leave stars. The Analyst's safety net doesn't apply here: on reviews, Escalate complaints to a human doesn't weigh in, the stars do; the other escalations in Behavior, such as Escalate pricing questions, do apply. Before writing and before publishing, it checks the review on Google: if someone already answered it there, nothing goes out. Writing a reply uses AI credits, just like a comment.

To see what it would answer, open the position's Test tab, choose Manual text and the Review · Google Business source: you pick the Review stars and can leave the text empty to try a stars-only review. The result tells you whether it would publish, leave a draft or hand the review to a person, and why.

Why is a permission needed to publish on Google on its own?

Google asks for the business's prior, express consent before a tool publishes review replies without a person sending them. Until it's given, the AI Community Manager in Auto-reply leaves review replies as drafts for someone on your team to send, and rules with a reply don't answer reviews; the management actions of rules (labelling, assigning, notifying) run as usual. While it's missing, the AI Team table marks the position with Reviews as drafts.

An owner or admin gives it in Settings > General, in the Automatic replies on Google block, with Authorize: first, tick the box confirming that you own the listings or that the business authorized you to reply to its reviews, also automatically. The block appears once there's a Google Business listing connected.
MB Suite also asks for it when you save a position or a rule that would publish review replies on its own: Authorize and save, or Save without authorizing to keep those replies as drafts.
Who authorized it and when is recorded, and the block shows it. You can withdraw it anytime with Revoke: from then on, review replies stay as drafts.

A reply to a review is public and stays tied to your business on Google. Before authorizing automatic replies, run the position for a while in Suggest drafts to see how it writes, and keep Sensitive reviews go to a person on. Publishing replies from MB Suite is governed by the Terms and Conditions, which always hold the current version, and by Google's policies.

What can rules do with reviews?

In Settings > Rules, with a Google Business listing connected, the Definition block adds two conditions. Stars: pick one or more; with stars picked, anything that isn't a review doesn't match the rule. Text: Any, No text or With text; No text catches, for example, reviews that only leave stars, and it can't be combined with keywords. The rules you already had don't see reviews until you turn on Reviews in their Scope; the ones you create from now on include them. For example: 1 or 2 stars → assign it to whoever looks after that branch and notify them.

How do I find out a new review came in?

With the same alerts as the rest of the Inbox, in Settings > Notifications: New incoming message also tells you about each new review, and the reviews handed to a person —by the AI Community Manager, or because Google rejected a reply— arrive as AI escalation.

Still have questions?

Ask MIA, the MB Suite AI assistant: open it with the MB AI button (⌘J) in the top bar. MIA knows the section you're in, so you can ask it about what you see on screen — and it can also answer how-to questions about using MB Suite.

Google reviews in the Inbox: reply from MB Suite and let the AI Community Manager help