The AI-powered answering service for restaurants and other businesses, Numa, now offers businesses the ability to send and receive text messages, pictures, Facebook Messenger communication and voicemail, according to a news release.

Numa's new platform allows brands to offer a "message" button from within Google Maps and Google Search. The company said this feature allows restaurants and other businesses to not only further their conversations with customers, but also drive and improve sales, as well as customer loyalty.

"We are excited to be part of Google's program for Business Messages," Tasso Roumeliotis, Numa's founder and CEO, said in the release. "We're committed to improving customer connection with the best conversational messaging experience."

Numa enables texting with a business phone, even if it's a landline, allowing restaurateurs to send and receive text messages from an existing phone number and catch calls when the business can't grab them.

"Helping businesses improve and enhance ways to communicate with their customers has always been a focus for Google," Fei Gao, Google partnerships manager, said in the release. "We're excited that Numa is integrating with Google's Business Messages to meet their customers where they are, create connections that count, and respond to messages that allow program optimization."

As an AI-powered virtual assistant and concierge platform, Numa is designed to help restaurants and other businesses communicate via text, which many customers prefer.