Google launches Actions on Google Developer Challenge
Google Assistant is a key part of Google’s offering now and is a bridge between the user and your service via multiple devices today like Google Home, Select Android Phones and now available even on iOS.
Google has launched a Developer Challenge to help build Actions on Google and you stand to earn some serious prizes. The contest is open now and runs through August 31. Check out details for the contest and the timeline over here:
Writing Apps for Google Assistant is easy and most important of all, your investment in it is going to pay since the Google Assistant is being made available on multiple devices, whether it is Google Home, your phones and maybe others in the near future. But do not underestimate the task of writing an Action since it is not just about code but also about design.
So I suggest that you start at the Design level first to ensure that your Action has the right persona, the interactions that you expect and more. Pay special attention to the Design checklist. This is important since it can have a direct bearing on your Action being finally approved by Google for availability on the devices.
So it is very important to prototype your Google Action first. Just think of it as creating a threaded conversation. Think of the questions that the user will ask of your Action or Service. The responses that your Action should give back and so on. Chalk out every path and answer that the user can give. Google has made available a UI Toolkit for you to design your interactions. There are great interaction samples that it has provided. A sample interaction of buying shoes is provided, which is linked below but there are more examples and it sure helps to see the experience.
Once you have a hang of your design and have sketched out the conversation, you need to implement/develop your action. You have a couple of options here:
- Use the Actions SDK
- Use API.AI
Both the options are powerful, with the former requiring that you are well familiar with using the Actions SDK in one or more of your preferred client languages and hosting it yourself. I suggest that if you are starting out, you can begin with API.AI, which is a fantastic tool that can get you off the blocks quickly. It basically wraps the Actions SDK with a great UI, NLP and Machine Learning features.
This is a great tutorial to get started with it:
Google provides test simulators too to help you test out your actions without needing any of the devices. As you test it, you will discover paths that the user might take and which your Action does not interpret yet. That is a good sign. Go ahead and revisit your interaction flow and handle those scenarios.
Finally, once you are done with the testing, it is time to submit it for approval to Google. The process is similar to submitting a mobile app for approval and final distribution to the general public. The Distribute guide provides key points that you should pay attention to before submitting your action for approval.
May a thousand Actions on Google bloom! All the best!
