actions on google - how to handle long running operations - actions-on-google

Question

I have AoG action that is logging-in to external backend and once logged in it can control specific appliance via external backend's API. Action basically controls home alarm via commands like arm section XY, disarm section garage, etc. Before getting control to alarm it is necessary to login and this takes considerable time (approx. 20-30 seconds). This is much longer than AoG actually allows resulting in timeouts. I am initiating login as asynchronous operation in actions.intent.MAIN handler (i.e. not waiting for the result of login within handler) and just saying to user to tell the command (arm/disarm garage, etc.) in couple of seconds. I have also implemented push notification which is working fine. Problem with push notification is that it just pops up on mobile phone without any sound & user has to open notifications and tap it. Then it will trigger intent and do requested action.
This is not really good user experience (typically I would like to use my action in the car when coming home and having the possibility to disarm the home alarm without need to touch the phone, tap the notification, etc).
Any idea how to implement it in more proper way? What I would really appreciate is if google assistant could actually re-initiate the conversation & tell me something like: 'hey I am already logged in into alarm service provider, what do you want me to do now?'.
I will be grateful for any advice dealing with similar problem.
I am using ActionsSDK for Node.JS to build my action.

Answer 1

You've already looked at the ways that the Assistant can initiate (or re-initiate) a conversation. Actions are really designed for something that is conversational, and a 30 second pause in the conversation would be awkward.
One other option you have is to use a Media Response as part of your reply to the user logging in (or as part of your welcome intent? Not entirely clear, but the approach would be the same). This would let you play some "hold music" for several seconds. At the end of the music playing, an actions.intent.MEDIA_STATUS would be sent to your Action, which you can use to make sure the login has completed and, if so, respond to the user appropriately.

Answer 2

The only way for AoG to "take initiative of starting a conversation" is through push notifications. There is no way for the assistant to strike up a conversation after a period of time or when an event occur.
Perhaps another way of doing might be to only send push notification if your action fails to execute the long sequence of events and the triggering action could invoke an intent to try again. The assumption would be that everything's fine unless said so.
You could also notify the user that it'll take a couple of seconds to complete the action once it's initated and implement followup intents that handles if the user asks "Is it done?" or "How's it going?". Making it part of the flow to check on progress, but with the assumption that it should be successful.
You can easily dislocate the long running background process by implementing a task queue in Firebase where your intent is creating a child similar to this.
firebase.database().ref("tasks").push({action: "disarm_garage"});
And then you create a cloud function trigger to handle it
functions.database.ref('tasks/{id}').onCreate((snap) => {
const action = snap.val().action;
switch (action) {
case 'disarm_garage':
// ...
break;
}
// Remove the task after processing
return snap.ref.remove();
});
That would ensure that you have enough time to complete the task in background without blocking the conversation.