Need to default listings to NOT publish to google merchant center

Topic summary

Request to default new products to NOT publish to Google via the Shopify Google & YouTube app (Google Merchant Center feed). The user sells items that are prohibited on Google and wants the “Publish to Google” field set to false by default, so products are excluded unless manually opted in.

Goal: avoid policy violations and only publish compliant products by selectively enabling them for the feed.

Key terms: Google Merchant Center (GMC) receives product feeds from Shopify; the publish flag determines whether a product is included in Google listings.

Status: no solution or setting has been provided in the discussion. The user is seeking a way (setting, workflow, or default configuration) to make non-publication the default for newly created products. Unresolved and awaiting guidance.

Summarized with AI on January 3. AI used: gpt-5.

We have products that will be prohibited on google. I want to set the default for products to NOT publish to google using the google/youtube app. How can I have products we create set to “false” for this field by default?

Once I can do this, I can then manually decide which products to publish to google with the feed without worry of getting in trouble with google.