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Hi all,
Weโre happy to announce that AppSheet-powered no-code chat apps are now available in preview for Workspace customers in AppSheet! We announced this feature at Google Cloud Next back in October and weโre excited to finally share it with you today.
You can access this feature right now if you are a Workspace customer in AppSheet, and you can provide any feedback in this thread. If needed, additional information can be found in our help center articles. Weโre targeting a full launch for later this year.
What is a No-Code Chat app?
Weโve made it possible so that any AppSheet app can now be added to your organizationโs Google Workspace Chat account as a โChat app.โ Creators can configure how these โChat versionsโ of their apps should work, then easily publish them as Chat apps for use in their organizationโs Workspace account. The best part? The entire process takes 5 minutes or less.
Technically speaking, this feature adds support for a โChatโ deployment of an AppSheet app (in addition to the existing Mobile and Desktop views), such that any app (including any existing apps youโve built) can now be published to Chat.
Using Chat apps, your users can trigger automations using slash commands, respond to approval requests, submit data via forms, view detail or list (deck) data, or even get notified when something changes in a connected data source or on a schedule.
What can Chat apps do?
As part of this preview, App Creators can:
- Deploy a Chat app in AppSheet using the new Chat app builder
- Customize a Chat app to run automations that send data to a chat thread, Space, or direct message (like a notification that a new lead came into a Salesforce database)
- Use a slash command to send app views, custom messages, trigger email sends, kick off process flows, or practically anything else
- Build a Chat app from scratch, from a template, or from an existing app
- Share a Chat app with a limited group or their whole domain
- Publish a Chat app via simplified โautomaticโ or fully-configurable manual publishing wizard
- Integrate with AppSheetโs Apps Script connector to extend your Chat app with a range of internal and external services
As part of the preview, Google Chat users in your same organization can:
- Install an AppSheet Chat app in Google Chat
- Navigate through an AppSheet app via Chat
- Trigger automations like sending approvals to their manager, update project statuses, request inventory checks, or much more
- See table or row data directly from Chat, add or update content, search for and see data โ all from Chat
- Get notified when something changes or on a particular schedule โ for example, notifying a stakeholder when a P0 projectโs status changes, or asking for + collecting your teamโs weekly updates
How can I set up a Chat app?
While weโve put together a detailed guide in the Help Center, hereโs a quick overview:
Any AppSheet app can become a Chat app. Just head into the AppSheet editor and select โChat apps (beta).โ
From there, weโll help you configure your app to run on Chat and get any actions set up. While your Chat app comes with a few features built-in, actions allow you to further customize a Chat app's functionality even more: think using slash commands to trigger a form, typing /newdeals to get a list of newly closed sales, or configuring your Chat app to send your coworker a reminder to update their project status.
To get your app from AppSheet to Chat, youโll need to publish it to make it available to your coworkers. Before today, the only way to publish a Chat app was to follow a days-long process in Google Cloud Platform. As part of this Chat app launch, weโre introducing a simplified Chat app publication process. While it doesnโt get rid of ALL the steps (just yet!), what used to take days or weeks of setup can now be done in just a few minutes.
Whatโs next?
Weโre excited to share this initial version of Chat apps with you, but weโre not done yet! The team is still hard at work building additional features and capabilities. Currently, only a subset of AppSheet functionality is available in chat. Over the next few weeks, youโll see the Chat app builder and publishing flow get additional functionality like:
- A full one-click publishing flow (so users donโt need to do any configuration inside Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
- Slash commands that accept parameters, so you can view or edit a specific row
- Support for additional data types (form fields, app views)
- Usability and performance improvements
- And more!
Known Issues
- Chat apps do not have full parity with AppSheet apps. You can find a full list of supported features here.
- Chat app creators must have permission to create and configure Google Cloud Platform projects. (Details and troubleshooting here)
- Forms donโt currently preserve values across a refresh if an error blocks submission. (Fix ETA: February 2023)
Because this feature is in preview, it should not be used for production use cases.
Ready to get started? Ensure youโre opted in to the Preview Program, then navigate to the Chat apps tab in the AppSheet Editor. If youโre not opted in to the Preview Program, you can do so here:
Weโd love to hear if you have any specific use cases in mind for Chat apps. If you have any other feedback, please do share it in this thread as well!
Thank you,
Rachel (On behalf of the AppSheet Chat apps team)
In addition to the points raised by @takuya_miyai , this is not a big deal but logically wrong I feel.
My understanding is the app creator can create ONE Chat App PER one single app. But the main menu says "Chat Apps", which is plural. Locally, Chat App (singular) should be the right name for the menu option.
โ
