4 reasons why App actions custom intent fails and solutions

We all know that we can open specific screens or search data in our app using Google assistant with the help of android app actions.

For example:- If you want to search app actions tutorial on Youtube you can say “Hey Google, search app actions tutorial in youtube”. It will open youtube and navigate to the search screen and shows the results. Impressive right. You can achieve this using app actions built-in intent. But, I am not going to explain app actions or built-in intent or custom intent, if you want to know you can comment below. I am going to explain some reasons why custom intent not working and its solutions.

What is the use of Custom Intent?

If there are no app actions built-in intent for your app functionality, you can use a custom intent to your app to add that functionality. To know more or how to integrate custom intent refer to this link https://developers.google.com/assistant/app/custom-intents.

First of all, try the App actions test tool to test your custom intent. Refer to this link(https://developers.google.com/assistant/app/legacy/test-tool) to add a test tool plugin in android studio. If custom intent is not triggered then the issue is in the actions.xml. If it is triggered through the test tool but not through human query(through voice or text) then you may face below any issue. I have given a solution also if you face anyone from the below. So let us start...

1. Mail Id mismatch

As per Google, the app actions test tool work when you log in with the same mail id in Google play console, Android studio and app actions test tool. The same rule will be applicable to Google Assistant. You should also log in with the same mail ID in google assistant also. So please check whether you log in with the same mail ID in Google assistant. The four platforms should contain the same login ID for Google assistant to trigger your custom intent.

2. Locale mismatch

Custom intent supports only en-us locale. So check if the Google Assistant locale is en-us if not change to en-us and also check and change device locale because of device locale mismatch may be Google assistant didn’t trigger your custom intent.

3. Query mismatch

We know that we should provide a possible set of queries expected from the user for that intent and Google Assistant trigger our custom intent by checking the user query against your query patterns. So please check your query to make an exact match against your query patterns. For example, if your query pattern contains “create an event” then your query must be “open calendar and create an event” not “open calendar and create event”

4. Wrong invocation format

For built-in intent, we use invocation name at the end of the sentence or query like “search app actions tutorial in Youtube”. But to trigger custom intent you should add an invocation name at the beginning of your query or sentence like“open your app name and create an event”.

So try the below format:-

“open” + appInvocationName “and” + yourQuerySentence

“start” + appInvocationName “and” + yourQuerySentence

“use” + appInvocationName “to” + yourQuerySentence

NOTE:- Wrong invocation query was the problem for me. After I tried the above solution it works

So I think this blog help you in testing the app actions custom intent. So you have any queries please feel free to contact me. If you face anything other than these four please comment below. Thank you all.