Launch an agent

After you verify an agent for a brand that you manage, build out your message-routing capabilities, and determine that your infrastructure is ready to interact with users, it's time to launch.

To make an agent available to users, you launch the agent on various entry points. Entry points control where users can begin conversations with the agent.

You can only launch an agent on entry points that you configured before you verified the agent. To edit allowed entry points after agent verification, contact us. (You must first sign in with a Business Messages Google account. To register for an account, see Register with Business Messages.)

Pre-launch checklist

Before you launch your agent, use the following checklist to catch any issues that might appear during the launch process.

Agent configuration
Agent verification Required. Verification that the agent's information is accurate and that the agent can represent the associated brand. See Verify agents and locations.
Privacy policy Required. A publicly available URL starting with "https://". See Create an agent.
Messaging availability Required. The days and times that human representatives are available to respond to users. If a human interaction type isn't specified for your agent, it can't launch on Google-managed entry points (except for the Google Ads entry point). See Set messaging availability.
Greeting Required. The welcome message and optional conversation starters that guide users through known user journeys. See Begin the conversation.
Offline message Recommended. A message that displays when a user starts a conversation outside of an agent's operating hours. See Begin the conversation.

Infrastructure readiness
Message handling is complete Required. Your webhook and agent infrastructure are ready to receive, send, and track messages.
Event handling is complete Required. Your webhook and agent infrastructure are ready to send and receive events.
Survey handling is complete Required. Your webhook and agent infrastructure are ready to send surveys and receive results.

Conversation readiness
Live agents are available Required. Live agents are ready to respond to user messages as soon as the agent launches.
Automation is complete and available Recommended. Any automation you've developed or integrated with is complete and ready to handle user messages as soon as the agent launches.

When you launch an agent, Business Messages performs checks for necessary approvals, emails you once the agent is approved for launch, and begins the launch process. Once the launch process begins, the agent is available to users within a few hours.

You should be ready to respond to user messages before you launch an agent.

To launch an agent to a non-local region,

Open the Business Communications Developer Console and sign in with your Business Messages Google account.
Choose your agent.
In the left navigation, click Launch.
In Non-local regions, select each region you want to launch the agent in.
Click Launch.

Unlaunch an agent

If you need to cancel an agent launch or unlaunch a live agent, you can mark an agent entry point as unlaunched. If the agent was in a pending launch state, this cancels the agent launch for that entry point. If the agent was launched, this removes the agent from the specified entry points and regions.

When you unlaunch an agent, conversations persist on user devices, but users can't send messages to the agent.

To unlaunch an agent from a non-local region,

Open the Business Communications Developer Console and sign in with your Business Messages Google account.
Choose your agent.
In the left navigation, click Launch.
In Non-local regions, select each region you want to remove the agent from.
Click Unlaunch.
Enter "UNLAUNCH", then click Unlaunch.

Next steps

Now that your agent is launched, users can start conversations on the agent's configured entry points. Identify and review the metrics you can use to measure your agent's success.

To enable location-specific entry points, launch the locations associated with your agent.