Yelp adds a feature that calls restaurants to check wait times

In short: Yelp is adding a new “Check for Me” feature that can call a restaurant for you to ask about wait times, then text you the result.

What happened

Yelp says its app can now place a phone call on your behalf to check how long the wait is at a restaurant. The feature is called “Check for Me,” and it appears on restaurant pages in the Yelp app.

To use it, you enter your party size and your phone number. Yelp’s AI agent, meaning a computer program that can talk and listen like a caller, then calls the restaurant and asks about the current wait time. After the call, it sends you a text message with what it found.

Yelp is also updating its in-app AI assistant, which is the chat feature that helps you find restaurants and services. With a new OpenTable connection, you can book a table without leaving Yelp.

The assistant is also getting more personal features. Yelp says it can remember preferences you mentioned in past chats, like “quiet patio” or “spicy food,” and it will let you view the last 30 days of chat history, with full history coming later.

For business owners, Yelp is introducing a paid tool called Smart Lead Reply for $30 per month. Yelp says it can reply to customers and ask questions to sort out whether someone is a real potential customer.

Why it matters

For regular users, this is about saving time and avoiding phone calls, like having a helper do a quick check before you leave the house. For restaurants and other businesses, it also means they may get more calls from AI agents, and in some cases an AI agent could end up talking to another AI agent, which Yelp notes could cause confusion.

Source: TechCrunch AI