LocalClarity now pulls Google’s reply moderation status into ReviewsInbox™, showing whether replies are Published, Pending, or Rejected. This release also adds expanded reply source icons and status badges so teams can quickly see whether a response was manual, template-based, AI-generated, or external, while also identifying replies made outdated by updated reviews.
Recently, Google made a quiet but important change to the way businesses should think about review responses. Starting April 20, 2026, Google began exposing a new Review Reply State through the Google Business Profile API, giving brands visibility into whether their submitted replies are pending, approved, or rejected.
This change fits into a much larger shift happening across Google’s review ecosystem. Reviews have always influenced consumer trust, but they are increasingly part of the source material that shapes AI-generated answers, summaries, and local discovery experiences.
LocalClarity has added a new review reply verification process for Google reviews. Until now, once a response was sent from the platform, the workflow naturally treated that reply as complete. The response was written by a user, selected from a template, or generated through an AI-powered automation, then transmitted to Google through the authorized Business Profile connection. As of today, this is no longer the final step.
With Google now evaluating submitted review replies, LocalClarity has added a new follow-up check designed to confirm what happened after the reply was delivered. Minutes after a response is transmitted to Google, the platform now goes back to the Google Business Profile API and retrieves the latest moderation state for that reply, with the result display in the ReviewsInbox™. You can see whether Google has published the reply, is still reviewing it, or has blocked it from appearing publicly. If blocked, you can compose and submit an alternate reply for evaluation.
This creates a new layer of visibility that did not previously exist. A response can now be marked as Published, Pending, or Rejected. The status is displayed as a badge on top of the reply status. An updated set of icons have been created to identify whether the response came from a person, a saved template, an AI automation, or an reply executed outside the LocalClarity platform or before a business become a client.
The new status language also supports more complex real-world review workflows. If a review is updated after a reply has already been published, the platform show that the reply is now outdated. If a review is removed from Google, that removed state can be layered on top of the prior reply state (previously, the state was masked by the removal icon). The goal is to give your team a clear operational view of the entire reply lifecycle: drafted, approved, queued, sent, checked, published, rejected, outdated, or removed.
This is especially important for brands using automation at scale. A reply that appears “sent” is not necessarily the same as a reply that is visible to customers on Google. LocalClarity now separates those two ideas. We confirm the transmission of the reply, then separately confirm Google’s moderation result as soon as that information becomes available.
We are working to add optional for email alerts when Google marks a reply as rejected, pending for too long, or unknown after the follow-up check. Just like existing automations, users can set triggers based on profile, location group, review rating, and reply source: manually written, template-based, or AI-generated.
Next, we will provide comprehensive reporting, allowing your team to see how many replies were submitted, published, pending, or rejected, then compare outcomes across individual replies, templates, and AI automations to quickly identify where changes are required. It's our hope to make "Reply Scorecards" available in the new Lia interface within the next two weeks.
