Google Assistant - Start building Actions on Google

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Developers can now start building applications for Google Assistant. Conversation Actions shall also be usable with the Allo Messenger soon.

• https://developers.googleblog.com/2016/12/start-building-actions-on-google.html
• https://blog.google/products/allo/google-allo-smarter-messaging-app/

I’ve been looking into this yesterday, but I’m not sure if this is the way that pimatic should be integrated into Google Assistant.

I’ve received my Google Home this week, and it has a separate section in the app for Smart Home appliances. Currently it only supports Nest, Hue and SmartThings, but I am pretty sure this will open up for other systems in the beginning of 2017.

Of course the Actions on Google could be used, but it would require quite a lot of effort, and it needs to be configured for every language on it’s own. My guess is that it would work a lot better when Google opens up the actual Smart Home part of Google Assitant.

EDIT: For now the easiest way is to link Assistant and Pimatic together with IFTTT

@mwittig Actually just saw this today: https://api.ai/google-assistant

You can probably create this integration with api.ai. Will try something like this myself to. But as a Slack bot.

@Tim said in Google Assistant - Start building Actions on Google:

You can probably create this integration with api.ai.

Yes, that’s my understanding from the blog post.

@FrostedKiwi said:

… but I am pretty sure this will open up for other systems in the beginning of 2017

The blog post mentions an early access program developer can subscribe to - https://assistant.google.com/developer/eap/

@mwittig Yes I am subscribed to that, but they have not given any ETA.
The current API is just for talking back, which is not really something that pimatic does. Pimatic just needs to take actions based on input.

a talkback would be handy though mostly for weather information i think

https://forum.pimatic.org/topic/2604/google-weave-integration

This was the platform I’m talking about.

“Weave currently supports the most popular categories: light bulbs, thermostats, outlets, and switches. We’ll be adding support for new devices that users care about.”

https://www.engadget.com/2017/05/04/google-turns-rasberry-pi-into-a-dirt-cheap-home-competitor/

This is a cool project, but I would probably use the microphone of my webcam and connect some random speaker.

The SDK is available now: https://developers.google.com/assistant/sdk/overview

Sadly that only concerns the Assistant. For Pimatic to be reachable by Google Assistant, we need some way of communicating using Google Weave. At the moment there is no Weave SDK for Node.js, and I don’t nearly have enough time to create it.

Apparently Google has (silently?) released Smart Home for Actions on Google. https://developers.google.com/actions/smarthome/
As far as I can see this looks like the best way to integrate pimatic with Google Assistant.
I don’t nearly have enough time (and Node.js experience, but that’s not a big issue) to properly look into this at the moment, but maybe a @developer wants to give it a shot?

I know a way via IFTTT… IFTTT support google assistant. You can activate this then you must brew an applet via webhook.

for a switch eg

http://username:password@dnsdomain.com:8080/api/device/yourdeviceid/changeStateTo?state=false

google assistant on your smartphone will switch off you device. That’s awesome but if you want this for many devices you have a lot of work.

https://ifttt.com/google_assistant

Does anyone already have a google assistant? I think the pimatic-echo plugin might already be working OOTB, because Amazon’s echo uses the same discovery mode for devices.
So if anyone could try?

@Swen so far this is indeed the only possible way. Be aware that you are not using https, and sending your credentials in plaintext over the internet (through a 3rd party service too). Downside is also that it does not understand natural speech, but only your predefined sentences.

@michbeck100 that looks good, I will test it when I get back home from holidays, but since Assistant supports Wemo, it should work.

I will also try to make time to start working on Smart Home for Actions on Google, but if any other dev has the time and knowledge to do this, please do so

@FrostedKiwi sure but if you think this way then it’s not recommend to give another service your login data. You never know how they save this in their database. At this point a pimatic Plugin will be cool.

Will also check out compatibility, mine should arrive the next few days as it is available in germany now

@Swen well, you shouldn’t reuse login data anyway But my point wasn’t exactly that you store your login data at IFTTT (for which you indeed have to trust that service), but that you use http to connect to your pimatic server, so any man-in-the-middle attack (for example Wireshark on a public network) will easily see your login data. Anyways, too much offtopic

As for the Smart Home for Actions on Google, I guess I will also ask Google if there is a possibility in their current setup to allow users to connect locally, since otherwise there would have to be a public cloud service handling all the requests for all pimatic users.

But there is no way to get easy SSL. I found a script for Raspberry that renew SSL certification of Let’s Encrypt. But i didn’t test it at the moment. And i have no idea how to get it to work. Generally I know about the risk.

I have seen an option in Assistant german version that calls “verknüpfung” eg english link. I think i don’t have the newest version or its only coming with google home hardware? I don’t know, but there are some options missing on my phone.

But it will be a hardwork to link all voice commands each to pimatic…

OK Google Home is running here now… No way to include local devices it seems. WeMo wants access granted via the WeNo app. 🙁

Can’t post screenshots as the forum software won’t upload because of wrong extension (capital PNG)…

They are many picture hoster out there…

I am using www.youscreen.de to upload pics. first taking screens and then inserting the shortcut here. works perfectly.
i also edited the upload criterias, now pics with capital endings can be uploaded @thex.
could you give it a try. hope it will work