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My project on Actions On Google is not getting approved and I'm struggling to find a good reason.
Let's say the name of my app is < appname>. The < appname> is a simple two word phrase and is not a duplicate of any existing app in the store.

The invocation names configured are:

  • Talk to < appname>
  • Play < appname>
  • Launch < appname>
  • Open < appname>
  • Speak to < appname>

While testing on Google Home Mini, all invocations worked flawlessly. However, Google review folks reverted, suggesting that other than Talk to < appname> all invocations are failing.

Thereafter, I tested on Google Assistant on iPhone. Surprisingly, although the said phrases are being interpreted properly (evident from speech-to-text) but other than Talk to < appname> it fails for other invocations.

They're suggesting to submit the only working invocation but it will limit access to my app.

Kabeer
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    What do you think we can possibly do to help you resolve this problem? This site is for programming related questions; we cannot help with issues with your app without code, and it's pretty doubtful you're going to post that here. We clearly can't test the speech recognition of the phrases you've posted, because unless your app name is really *less than appname greater than*, we don't have access to the phrases. – Ken White Feb 22 '18 at 17:57
  • If folks here have had similar experiences, they can advice on steps I can take to get approval. It could be related to any mistake I may be doing with regards to invocations, etc. Revealing my < appname > would be not right for me. – Kabeer Feb 22 '18 at 18:00
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    Not how this site works. Google has offered advice on the steps you can take to get approval. This site is for **programming related questions**, and your question is not about programming; it's about the approval process. – Ken White Feb 22 '18 at 18:00
  • Google has advised me to remove all invocations not working. This is not a solution. It is like asking to remove the module that is buggy to remove the bug. – Kabeer Feb 22 '18 at 18:03
  • What part of *not programming related* isn't clear? – Ken White Feb 22 '18 at 18:04
  • If you insist on programming, then I can post all invocations in JSON format that Dialogflow takes. – Kabeer Feb 22 '18 at 18:07
  • @KenWhite - It *is* related to a tool used to deploy software, in the same way that questions tagged "app-store" are related to a tool used to deploy software. – Prisoner Feb 22 '18 at 19:14
  • @Kabeer - You're really not giving us anything to help you with and the question is vague. (Is there even a question in there?) I'm not sure what kind of answer you expect from StackOverflow on the issue, particularly since you can't give us any examples. If you've discussed the problem with the Actions support people, they're the ones that can point you in the right direction. We can try to help - but there just isn't anything we can help **with**. – Prisoner Feb 22 '18 at 19:17
  • @Prisoner: Your last comment (immediately above this one) says **exactly** what my first comment to this post says. Not sure what you're criticizing about mine. And this is **not** a deployment issue, it's a publication issue. There's a difference. We don't do Play Store or other third-party account support here. This has been discussed at length in [meta]. – Ken White Feb 22 '18 at 19:44
  • @KenWhite - I'm not criticizing your question at all, just pointing out that you're focusing on the code aspect. From the description so far - this isn't a coding problem, and focusing on it got the useless "I can post the JSON invocations" ramble. This *could be* a problem with the Actions Console or the review process associated with the Action. I agree with you *completely* that the OP isn't giving us anything to work with. (Or even a question.) But there are things we as a community can help them with to use the Console, even without them showing any code. (But we need more info.) – Prisoner Feb 22 '18 at 19:52
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    And no, we can't do account support here. But from what we've seen, this isn't about account support (the account isn't blocked or restricted from doing something). This certainly sounds like it could be a deployment issue - "why wouldn't this be recognized by someone else the same way it is by me?" – Prisoner Feb 22 '18 at 19:58

1 Answers1

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Precursor

I realize this isn't exactly a code question, but I believe it belongs on Stack Overflow. There's JSON, queries, and invoking methods through voice involved. If it were about other metadata, such as the description and privacy policies, then it would be inappropriate, in my opinion.

I'll go ahead and respond to the question. Please don't hold the validity of the question against me.

Background

I've been building an Action on Google with the Actions SDK. While you're using dialogflow, some of the information I learned today should be helpful. Keep in mind I don't work on Actions on Google, so this is just a response from another user. It's also my first Action and I'm learning with you.

Solution

I think the issue with your configuration is the trigger words of your invocations. I'm still talking with one of the product managers, but it seems only certain trigger phrases are allowed. The format of an invocation is

[trigger] + [your action name] + to + [action invocation phrase]

If you look at the Language and Locales Doc, you will see

Docs: The basic verbs to trigger an app by its name are: talk, speak, and ask. Here are some example phrases that users can say to trigger your apps.

  • "let me talk to $name"
  • "I want to talk to $name"
  • "can I talk to $name"
  • "talk to $name"
  • ...

Therefore some of your trigger phrases are invalid. (Mine were too and I'm going to need to fix for resubmission)

You: However, Google review folks reverted, suggesting that other than Talk to < appname> all invocations are failing.

Talk to < appname > is working because it uses one of the three permitted English trigger phrases (talk).

I'm surprised the other invocations worked on the Google Home Mini. When I added more invocations through the Actions SDK using other triggers, they would not invoke the action. I can pass this along as a potential bug, where invalid triggers work with dialogflow on test devices, according to your report.

I'll follow up once my assumptions on trigger phrases are confirmed and will let you know if I learn anything notable.

Edit: One more note, I agree more trigger phrases are important for app discovery and I'm trying to find out if they can be added. From what I understand, some are disabled like play for media purposes, i.e. "hey google, play [some song]."

Matt Goodrich
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