The entry points are the reason to be on this channel. A customer looking for your support number in Maps, or tapping a number in a search result, can end up in a Messages thread with you instead of on hold. Apple builds those surfaces, and a business turns them on rather than integrating them.
Which entry points does Apple provide?
Two Apple lists answer this, written for two audiences, and they do not use the same words.
Apple's customer-facing guidance names the surfaces a customer starts from: "You can start a conversation through Maps, Safari, Siri, and Search, and through participating businesses' websites and apps." The instruction it gives a customer is equally plain: "Search for the business, tap the More button, then tap the Message button and start the conversation."
Apple's business-facing documentation instead lists what a brand configures: Message Suggest, Apple Maps, Website Button, App Button, Email & SMS, QR Code, NFC Tag, Social Media, Wallet Passes and Augmented Reality.
Reading the two together: Maps shows a Messages button on your place listing, Siri and Search reach the same business record, and Safari covers a customer finding you on the web, while the rest of Apple's business-side list is your own placement of a Messages link. Note that "Spotlight" is this page's word, and the reader's: Apple's own pages say "Search" and do not define it further, so treat the mapping from one to the other as our reading rather than Apple's.
How do you turn them on?
For the native surfaces, with a single setting. Apple's documentation is specific: "In Apple Business Register, check 'Show Message buttons for iOS and macOS' to activate Apple Maps, Business Card, and Message Suggest in one step."
Message Suggest is the one people underestimate, because it changes what an existing phone number does. Apple describes a customer tapping "any of your registered business phone numbers" and seeing "the option to message instead of call", whether that number sits on your website, in a search result or on Apple Maps. Every printed and published instance of that number becomes a potential messaging entry point without being edited.
Two consequences worth planning for. Call volume can move into messaging faster than a support forecast expects, and it moves on whichever numbers are registered, so register the ones you want messaged.
What does a Messages link or button carry?
An Apple Messages for Business URL addresses your business and can carry routing parameters with it. Apple's documented shape:
https://bcrw.apple.com/urn:biz:<your-business-id>?biz-intent-id=order_support&biz-group-id=post_sales&body=Tap%20Send%20to%20startThe body value prefills the customer's first message, and the intent and group values travel with the conversation. Apple's own reason for setting them is measurement as much as routing, and it covers the case where you route nothing at all: "Even if you don't use routing immediately, Intent IDs let you understand where conversations are coming from and which entry points are most effective." Set a distinct intent per entry point and the difference between the Maps listing and the checkout page button becomes visible in your own reporting. How conversations route into an existing inbox covers what happens to those values next.
For buttons on your own site, Apple publishes approved variants, including "Message Us", "Contact an Agent", "Ask a Question" and "Get Help", plus an icon-only option. The button also behaves correctly for the audience that cannot use it: "On websites, the Messages button hides automatically on unsupported devices." QR codes and email links use the same URL, which makes a printed code or an order confirmation an entry point too.
Why does the direction of the channel matter so much?
Because the entry points are how nearly every conversation starts. Apple's policies state that "Your business is prohibited from sending unsolicited messages" and that a business "may only send a message in response to an active conversation" outside the restrictions Apple sets out itself.
Those restrictions are narrow and Apple gates them. The one business-initiated message type is the invitation, which Apple's required-features list describes as a way to "Send invitation messages to opted-in customers to initiate a conversation via Apple Messages for Business using their provided mobile number", and account or transaction notifications are permitted only with Apple's prescribed unsubscribe notice and working subscribe and unsubscribe handling. Neither is a campaign channel, and neither reaches someone who has not opted in.
That inverts the usual channel plan. On SMS or WhatsApp you decide when a conversation starts and pay per message to start it. Here your job is to be present where the customer is already looking, which makes entry-point placement the closest thing this channel has to a growth lever. The teams that get volume are the ones that registered every business number, checked the Apple Business Register setting, put a button on the pages where questions actually arise, and gave each one its own intent.
Every Apple requirement on this page comes from Apple's own documentation, read on 4 September 2026: Message with your customer, Appendix A: Policies, End-to-end overview and Apple Support's How to use Messages for Business.
In short
Apple names four of its own surfaces.
Apple's customer guidance lists Maps, Safari, Siri and Search, plus participating businesses' websites and apps.
One checkbox turns on the native ones.
Apple Business Register has a single setting that activates Apple Maps, Business Card and Message Suggest together.
A tapped phone number can open a thread instead of a call.
Message Suggest offers messaging wherever a registered business number is tappable.
Every entry point can carry routing information.
A Messages URL takes intent and group parameters, which is how a conversation arrives already labelled.