Home

Emerging Tech

Phones

News

Restaurants may soon take wait-time calls from Yelp’s bot.

Yelp

I’ll do almost anything (read: everything) to avoid calling a restaurant just to ask how long the wait is. Yelp may have fixed that for me.

The new feature handles that tedious task. It’s part of Yelp Assistant’s fall update.

Yelp

What can Yelp’s new voice agent do?

On a restaurant’s page in the app, you ask how long the wait is, give the assistant the required details, and share the phone number. The AI agent then calls the restaurant, checks the wait time, and sends you the answer within minutes.

Yelp says the feature will arrive in the next few months, starting with iPhone users in the United States. Android users will have to wait for further word. Honestly, I’m curious how hosts will feel about getting calls from bots.

Yelp Assistant can also make reservations through OpenTable at tens of thousands of restaurants, another iOS -only feature for now.…