diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 1fd403e52..966e857e7 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -51,8 +51,8 @@
     "@google-cloud/precise-date": "^4.0.0",
     "@google-cloud/projectify": "^4.0.0",
     "@google-cloud/promisify": "^4.0.0",
-    "@opentelemetry/api": "~1.8.0",
-    "@opentelemetry/semantic-conventions": "~1.21.0",
+    "@opentelemetry/api": "~1.9.0",
+    "@opentelemetry/semantic-conventions": "~1.25.1",
     "arrify": "^2.0.0",
     "extend": "^3.0.2",
     "google-auth-library": "^9.3.0",
diff --git a/src/telemetry-tracing.ts b/src/telemetry-tracing.ts
index bd25d911e..01a24d39f 100644
--- a/src/telemetry-tracing.ts
+++ b/src/telemetry-tracing.ts
@@ -288,6 +288,21 @@ export function getTopicInfo(fullName: string): AttributeParams {
   };
 }
 
+// Determines if a trace is to be sampled. There doesn't appear to be a sanctioned
+// way to do this currently (isRecording does something different).
+//
+// Based on this: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js/issues/4193
+function isSampled(span: Span) {
+  const FLAG_MASK_SAMPLED = 0x1;
+  const spanContext = span.spanContext();
+  const traceFlags = spanContext?.traceFlags;
+  const sampled = !!(
+    traceFlags && (traceFlags & FLAG_MASK_SAMPLED) === FLAG_MASK_SAMPLED
+  );
+
+  return sampled;
+}
+
 export class PubsubSpans {
   static createAttributes(
     params: AttributeParams,
@@ -454,7 +469,8 @@ export class PubsubSpans {
       getTopicInfo(topicName)
     );
     const links: Link[] = messages
-      .map(m => ({context: m.parentSpan?.spanContext()}) as Link)
+      .filter(m => m.parentSpan && isSampled(m.parentSpan))
+      .map(m => ({context: m.parentSpan!.spanContext()}) as Link)
       .filter(l => l.context);
     const span: Span = getTracer().startSpan(
       `${topicName} send`,
@@ -466,19 +482,14 @@ export class PubsubSpans {
       ROOT_CONTEXT
     );
     span?.setAttribute('messaging.batch.message_count', messages.length);
-    messages.forEach(m => {
-      // Workaround until the JS API properly supports adding links later.
-      if (m.parentSpan) {
-        m.parentSpan.setAttribute(
-          'messaging.gcp_pubsub.publish.trace_id',
-          span.spanContext().traceId
-        );
-        m.parentSpan.setAttribute(
-          'messaging.gcp_pubsub.publish.span_id',
-          span.spanContext().spanId
-        );
-      }
-    });
+    if (span) {
+      // Also attempt to link from message spans back to the publish RPC span.
+      messages.forEach(m => {
+        if (m.parentSpan && isSampled(m.parentSpan)) {
+          m.parentSpan.addLink({context: span.spanContext()});
+        }
+      });
+    }
 
     return span;
   }
@@ -495,7 +506,8 @@ export class PubsubSpans {
       getSubscriptionInfo(subName)
     );
     const links: Link[] = messageSpans
-      .map(m => ({context: m?.spanContext()}) as Link)
+      .filter(m => m && isSampled(m))
+      .map(m => ({context: m!.spanContext()}) as Link)
       .filter(l => l.context);
     const span: Span = getTracer().startSpan(
       `${subName} response batch`,
@@ -507,19 +519,14 @@ export class PubsubSpans {
       ROOT_CONTEXT
     );
     span?.setAttribute('messaging.batch.message_count', messageSpans.length);
-    messageSpans.forEach(m => {
-      // Workaround until the JS API properly supports adding links later.
-      if (m) {
-        m.setAttribute(
-          'messaging.gcp_pubsub.receive.trace_id',
-          span.spanContext().traceId
-        );
-        m.setAttribute(
-          'messaging.gcp_pubsub.receive.span_id',
-          span.spanContext().spanId
-        );
-      }
-    });
+    if (span) {
+      // Also attempt to link from the subscribe span(s) back to the publish RPC span.
+      messageSpans.forEach(m => {
+        if (m && isSampled(m)) {
+          m.addLink({context: span.spanContext()});
+        }
+      });
+    }
 
     return span;
   }
diff --git a/test/telemetry-tracing.ts b/test/telemetry-tracing.ts
index 0240fb612..7baa297d1 100644
--- a/test/telemetry-tracing.ts
+++ b/test/telemetry-tracing.ts
@@ -344,5 +344,34 @@ describe('OpenTelemetryTracer', () => {
       assert.strictEqual(childReadSpan.kind, SpanKind.CONSUMER);
       assert.ok(childReadSpan.parentSpanId);
     });
+
+    it('creates publish RPC spans', () => {
+      const message: PubsubMessage = {};
+      const topicName = 'projects/test/topics/topicfoo';
+      const span = otel.PubsubSpans.createPublisherSpan(
+        message,
+        topicName
+      ) as trace.Span;
+      message.parentSpan = span;
+      span.end();
+
+      const publishSpan = otel.PubsubSpans.createPublishRpcSpan(
+        [message],
+        topicName
+      );
+
+      publishSpan?.end();
+      const spans = exporter.getFinishedSpans();
+      const publishReadSpan = spans.pop();
+      const childReadSpan = spans.pop();
+      assert.ok(publishReadSpan && childReadSpan);
+
+      assert.strictEqual(
+        publishReadSpan.attributes['messaging.batch.message_count'],
+        1
+      );
+      assert.strictEqual(publishReadSpan.links.length, 1);
+      assert.strictEqual(childReadSpan.links.length, 1);
+    });
   });
 });