Is it possible to mix a Smarthome action and a conversational action so that user have only to peform one account linking operation?
A smart home action must be a separate project from your conversational action. This means you will need to have each separately link their accounts. Although you can link them to a single backend, they will need to be implemented orthogonally.
Related
I have been trying to create a chat bot that helps users to interact with my website. I want Watson to be able to interact with my web-server to read, write or modify my database. In certain cases, Watson will require some very specific user inputs/Q&A which are too unordered to belong to any specific entity, for which I'm thinking an Action skill can help. After creating an Action skill that collects the desired user inputs, I'm now unable to find the option that let's you call an action skill from within a dialog node, or to callout for webhooks from an action skill.
Although some articles from the documentation says, it's possible to do so but I can't see from where. There used to be an option (Call an action skill) in the customize dialog box, here is a screenshot of the old customize dialog box, but this option is not there anymore. Is there any other way to achieve this?
IBM no longer provides the callout to actions skill from dialog skill. They posted alerts for existing users;-
Note: Once disabled, call out to an action skill will no longer be available.
We are developing interactive audiobooks for voice and have problems with some of our continuations with google assistant.
Example: In our story "Das tapfere Schneiderlein", the user hast to decide if he wants "Pflaumenmus" (plum butter) or "Apfelmus" (apple puree).
In the Test-console, everything works fine, both answers lead to the correct audio.
BUT with Google Assistant on Mobile device, only Pflaumenmus works. If I answer "Apfelmus", the action leaves conversations and opens Apple puree recipes with Google search. (see example image below, it's German, but still understandable I guess)
As we can never now, what our customers might answer, how can we prevent this from happening? (We are using Actions Builder.)
Example
This might be a result of an update regarding the Google Assistant Actions fallback intent behavior change that we announced on October 15/2020.
Follow the message from Google to make it work as you expect:
In order to provide a better experience, we now allow users to ask for some Assistant features, such as the weather or time, from within your Action. To perform this function, the Assistant detects if your Action matched a user's query with a fallback intent or NO_MATCH intent. If that is the case, and an appropriate response is available, Assistant responds to the user's request. If no response is available, or Assistant doesn't understand the query, the conversation continues within your Action.
As of October 15, 2020, this new behavior applies only if the fallback does not use a webhook. Starting January 15th 2021, we'll start enabling this feature for any Dialogflow fallback intent or Actions Builder NO_MATCH intent whether or not they use a webhook.
This change should not impact the operation of your Actions, unless you are using fallbacks as a way to collect input from your users. Going forward, you should only use fallback intents or NO_MATCH intents as a way to reprompt the user in the context of your Action. If you want your Actions to attempt to capture data from a wider range of user responses, create an intent that uses a Free form text type if you use Actions Builder. If you use Dialogflow, add an intent with a #sys.any type as the training phrase.
With Amazon Alexa it is possible to invoke an intent from a skill in 2 ways:
"Alexa start [skill name]."
And then proceed to ask that skill for a specific intent.
"Alexa tell [skill name] to [specific intent]."
With Google Assistant I only know of calling an action by:
"Okay Google talk to [action name]."
And then proceed to ask that action for a specific intent.
Is there an equivalent invocation to call specific intents from actions directly with the Google Assistant?
Yes, you can do "Hey google, ask [action name] to [invocation phrase]" as part of an explicit invocation. The documentation sometimes calls this a "deep link".
If you are using the Actions SDK, the Intent that matches the invocation phrase will be triggered.
If you are using Dialogflow, then you need to create an Intent that will match the invocation phrase and set it to be an additional welcome intent in the Invocations tab for the Action.
I'm just trying to figure out the main differences between these two types of actions. I mean a action that's use DialogFlow seems to be more conversational and more customizable. How does the Smart Home action handle the conversation? Is that a standard conversation based on the target device type?
When to create a Smart Home action and when to use DialogFlow?
To understand the difference, you need to understand the difference between a smart home action and a conversational action.
Conversational Actions
This is where the user initiates a conversation with "talk to X". Your action gets a WELCOME event. Then the user says more things and your action needs to process the user query and provide a text-based response.
Smart Home Actions
With the smart home integration, the user just gives a command directly. "Turn on my lights," for example, without precluding that with a "talk to" statement. Another big difference is that Google processes the user's query directly. Your smart home action does not get the user's text. Instead, there's a JSON request that specifies the user's intent.
The text that comes back is generated from Google as well, with parameters from your integration. Saying "turn on my lights" will result in "Ok, turning on lamp" or "Sorry, your lamp is offline" depending on what response your fulfillment sends.
There are a number of device types supported out of the box, as well as many traits. Traits specify the types of things that a device can do, such as turning on/off, or changing color. The traits are not explicitly tied to type, eg. you could change the color of a vacuum.
When to use each
If you're building or integrating a device that is meant to work with the Google Assistant, I'd suggest you look at smart home first. It will give users a better experience in being able to directly send queries, and it will make it easier for you to build fulfillment as the requests are structured already.
However, if it will not work for your application, you would want to look at Dialogflow, which will give you a greater level of flexibility in what the user can say.
I'm trying to develop an action for my Google Assistant. I'd like for it to be fire and forget type deal (i.e. 'Add x to my todo list').
The problem is, the assistant won't recognise the command without me first starting a conversation with the assistant app that the action exists within.
(Hey Google, I want to talk to ... )
I'm using webhooks to call a webserver that will handle the request.
I can't use IFTTT in this instance as it needs to be available for everyone in my home. (IFTTT actions are private or public to EVERYONE)
Is there any way to trigger an action without having to say anything else (besides 'Hey Google')?
There's a few ways to complete a quick action. There is implicit triggering, when your action gets matched based on a certain set of requests.
You: Hey Google, add paying taxes to my to-do list
Google: Ok, for that you may want to try talking to My App.
You: Okay
My App: Ok, added paying taxes
That may work, although still may require an extra step with the Google Assistant. Alternatively, you can also launch a specific intent in a conversation without a full conversation.
You: Hey Google, tell My App to add paying taxes to my to-do list
Google: Ok, getting My App
My App: Ok, added paying taxes
A third alternative would be to use the Google Assistant shortcuts feature which will take something you say and interpret that as something else. It only works for static utterances, so it may not work in your case.
You: Hey Google, add paying taxes to my to-do list
Google: Ok, getting My App
My App: Ok, added paying taxes
In this scenario, you'd need to have the shortcut "add paying taxes to my to-do list" to be interpreted as "tell My App to add paying taxes to my to-do list".
If this is designed to be used by several people in your home, you may need to think about how and whether each account should be able to access the same lists.