Build a Dialogflow CX Google Chat app that understands and responds with natural language

This page explains how to build a Google Chat app that can both understand and respond with natural language using Dialogflow. This guide uses Dialogflow CX, which has a direct integration with Google Chat. You can also use Dialogflow ES to build a Dialogflow ES Google Chat app by following the Dialogflow ES Google Chat guide.

For example, consider a Chat app that helps people rent cars. A user might write, "I'd like to rent a car". The Chat app might respond with a question like "Where would you like to pick up the vehicle?" which starts a human-like conversation with the user in which the Chat app both understands and responds with human speech while booking the car rental.

This is just one example. Dialogflow Chat apps are useful in all kinds of interactions. If it requires natural human speech, it calls for a Dialogflow Chat app. The prebuilt agents help you get started fast, and showcase what Dialogflow can do, like:

• Book flights
• Schedule doctor appointments
• Order food delivery
• Answer questions about a retail product catalog, like whether items are available in other colors

Objectives

• Set up your environment.
• Create and deploy a Dialogflow CX agent.
• Create and deploy a Chat app powered by the Dialogflow CX agent.
• Test the Chat app.

Prerequisites

• A Google Workspace account with access to Google Chat.
• A Google Cloud project.
• Make sure that you turn on billing for your Cloud project. Learn how to verify the billing status of your projects.

Architecture

The following diagram shows the architecture of a Chat app built with Dialogflow:

In the preceding diagram, a user interacting with a Dialogflow Chat app has the following flow of information:

1. A user sends a message in Chat to a Chat app, either in a direct message or in a Chat space.
2. A Dialogflow virtual agent, which resides in Google Cloud, receives and processes the message to produce a response.
3. Optionally, using a Dialogflow webhook, the Dialogflow agent can interact with external third-party services, such as a project management system or a ticketing tool.
4. The Dialogflow agent sends a response back to the Chat app service in Chat.
5. The response is delivered to the Chat space.

Set up the environment

1. In the Google Cloud console, enable the Google Chat API and the Dialogflow API.

   Enable the APIs

2. Confirm that you're enabling the APIs in the correct Cloud project, then click Next.

3. Confirm that you're enabling the correct APIs, then click Enable.

Create a Dialogflow CX agent

A Dialogflow CX agent is a virtual agent that handles concurrent conversations with your end-users. It's a natural language comprehension module that understands the nuances of human language. Dialogflow translates end-user text during a conversation to structured data that your apps and services can understand. You design and build a Dialogflow agent to handle the types of conversations required for your system.

A Dialogflow agent is like a human call center agent. You train them both to handle expected conversation scenarios, and your training doesn't need to be overly explicit.

Here's how to create the Dialogflow CX agent:

1. In the Dialogflow CX console, open the Dialogflow CX Console. Click Menu menu > Dialogflow CX.

   Go to the Dialogflow CX console

2. Choose a Google Cloud project. To find your project, you might need to click All and then search for it.

3. Now you have the option to choose a prebuilt agent or create your own. If you prefer to explore agent customization in detail later, choose one of the prebuilt agents, which are also helpful to learn about what agents can do.

   To choose a prebuilt agent, follow these steps:

   1. Click Use prebuilt agents.

   2. Select a prebuilt agent. For this guide, select Travel: car rental.

      Agents are rated as beginner, intermediate, or advanced based on how many features the agent uses and upon the sophistication of its conversation logic. Choosing an intermediate or advanced agent might require agent-specific customizations and settings, including enabling features and APIs in Google Cloud console.

   3. Click Import as agent.

   To create your own agent, follow these steps:

   1. Click Create agent.
   2. Select Auto-generate to create a data store agent or select Build your own to create other kinds of agents.

   For a detailed walkthrough of the agent building process, see Create a Dialogflow CX agent.

4. Configure basic agent settings:

   1. In Display name, enter a display name.
   2. Select your preferred location. If you want to change advanced location settings, click Edit.
   3. Select your preferred time zone.
   4. Select the default language for your agent. You can't change the default language for an agent after creation.

5. Click Create. Dialogflow CX begins creating the agent, and then displays the agent's default start flow.

6. Optionally, customize the agent. For a detailed walkthrough the agent customization process, see Create a Dialogflow CX agent.

7. As a best practice, test the agent:

   1. Click Test agent.
   2. Select Test agent in environment.
   3. In Environment, select Draft.
   4. In Flow, select Default Start Flow.
   5. In Page, select Start Page.
   6. In the Talk to agent compose bar, type Hello and press Enter. The agent responds by introducing itself.
   7. Complete the test by having the sample test conversation.

8. The Dialogflow CX agent is created. Return to the Dialogflow CX console. Click Menu menu > Dialogflow CX.

   Go to the Dialogflow CX console

9. Under Agents, click more_vert > Copy name. Save this name, as you use it when configuring the Chat app.

Create a Chat app and connect it with the Dialogflow agent

After creating a Dialogflow CX agent, follow these steps to turn it into a Chat app:

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to Google Chat API. Search for "Google Chat API" and click Google Chat API, then click Manage.

   Go to Chat API

2. Click Configuration and set up the Chat app:

   1. In App name, enter Dialogflow App.
   2. In Avatar URL, enter https://developers.google.com/workspace/chat/images/quickstart-app-avatar.png.
   3. In Description, enter Responds to real human conversation.
   4. Under Functionality, select Receive 1:1 messages and Join spaces and group conversations.
   5. Under Connection settings, select Dialogflow.
   6. Under Dialogflow settings, select Dialogflow CX.
   7. In Agent or Environment resource name, paste the Dialogflow CX agent name you copied at the end of Create a Dialogflow CX agent.
   8. Make this Chat app available to specific people and groups in your domain and enter your email address.
   9. Under Logs, select Log errors to Logging.

3. Click Save.

The Chat app is ready to receive and respond to messages on Chat.

Test the Chat app

Test the Dialogflow CX Chat app by messaging it in Google Chat.

1. Open Google Chat using the Google Workspace account that you provided when you added yourself as a trusted tester.

   Go to Google Chat

2. Click add New chat.
3. In the Add 1 or more people field, type the name of your Chat app.

4. Select your Chat app from the results. A direct message opens.

5. In the new direct message with the app, type Hello and press enter.

   The Dialogflow Chat app responds by introducing itself.

6. Complete the test by having the sample test conversation.

Sample test conversation

To test the Dialogflow CX Chat app in either the Dialogflow CX console or in Google Chat, have the following conversation. The explanation helps you understand how the Dialogflow CX agent interprets the user's natural language and produces its own natural language response at each step in the conversation. This sample conversation is based on the prebuilt agent called Travel: car rental.

Send card messages from Dialogflow

Dialogflow can respond with text or card messages. To respond with a card message, specify it as a custom payload in fulfillment.

The following JSON shows how to send a card message as a custom payload in fulfillment:

{
  'cardsV2': [{
    'cardId': 'createCardMessage',
    'card': {
      'header': {
        'title': 'A card message!',
        'subtitle': 'Sent from Dialogflow',
        'imageUrl': 'https://developers.google.com/chat/images/chat-product-icon.png',
        'imageType': 'CIRCLE'
      },
      'sections': [
        {
          'widgets': [
            {
              'buttonList': {
                'buttons': [
                  {
                    'text': 'Read the docs!',
                    'onClick': {
                      'openLink': {
                        'url': 'https://developers.google.com/workspace/chat'
                      }
                    }
                  }
                ]
              }
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  }]
}

Limits and considerations

• Chat interaction events have limited support and some considerations:
  • The following interaction events types are supported:
    • MESSAGE
    • ADDED_TO_SPACE
  • The query input sent to the Dialogflow agent corresponds to the value of the argumentText field in the Chat message. If the message includes a slash command, the value of the text field is used instead.
  • The full JSON payload of each Chat interaction event is sent to Dialogflow as a custom payload in the query parameter, and can be accessed with a Dialogflow webhook by querying the value of the WebhookRequest.payload field.
• Slash commands have limited support:
  • Slash commands that open dialogs aren't supported by Dialogflow Chat apps.
  • When Dialogflow Chat apps receive a message with a slash command, the query input contains only the value of the text field. The text field begins with the name of the slash command (for example, /command), which you can use to configure a Dialogflow agent's intent to detect a slash command.
  • If the Dialogflow agent needs to process the slash command's Chat interaction event JSON payload, it can do so by using a Dialogflow webhook to inspect the custom payload in the query parameter.
• Link previews aren't supported.
• If the Dialogflow agent responds with just one message, then the message is sent to Google Chat synchronously. If the Dialogflow agent responds with multiple messages, then all messages are sent to Chat asynchronously by calling the create method on the spaces.messages resource in Chat API once for each message.
• When using the Dialogflow CX integration with Chat, the Dialogflow agent and the Chat app must be set up in the same Google Cloud project. If you need to set up the Dialogflow and Chat in different Cloud projects, then you can set up an intermediate server to facilitate the connection. To learn how, see this Chat integration for Dialogflow CX example on GitHub.

Troubleshoot

When a Google Chat app or card returns an error, the Chat interface surfaces a message saying "Something went wrong." or "Unable to process your request." Sometimes the Chat UI doesn't display any error message, but the Chat app or card produces an unexpected result; for example, a card message might not appear.

Although an error message might not display in the Chat UI, descriptive error messages and log data are available to help you fix errors when error logging for Chat apps is turned on. For help viewing, debugging, and fixing errors, see Troubleshoot and fix Google Chat errors.

Clean up

To avoid incurring charges to your Google Cloud account for the resources used in this tutorial, we recommend that you delete the Cloud project.

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Manage resources page. Click Menu menu > IAM & Admin > Manage Resources.

   Go to Resource Manager

2. In the project list, select the project you want to delete and then click Delete delete.
3. In the dialog, type the project ID and then click Shut down to delete the project.

Related topics

• Dialogflow CX takes a state machine approach to Dialogflow agent design, which gives you clear and explicit control over a conversation, a better end-user experience, and a better development workflow. When building a Dialogflow Chat app, we recommend using Dialogflow CX.
  • To learn more about building and configuring agents, see Dialogflow CX Agents.
  • For a detailed walkthrough instructing you how to build and configure agents, see Create a Dialogflow CX agent.
• Dialogflow ES is another way to use Dialogflow with a Chat app.