Sending an Intent from Google Assistant to my smartphone

Question

I would like to do the following:

give a command to (the Google Assistant in) Google Home
from there, send an Intent to my Android smartphone starting an application (on a specific Activity)

Is that possible with Google actions?

I've scanned https://developers.google.com/actions/ but it is not clear to me whether I can send Intents to my phone. If so, can you provide a pointer?

Thanks in advance,

Marc

Try and split the puzzle into multiple parts. When you speak, Google Assistant attempts to "match" an intent. Once matched, a "fulfillment" is executed associated with the intent. A fulfillment is commonly a Webhook piece of code on a Webserver. Now imagine that the webserver was invoked ... try and solve for the puzzle "How would I get an app running on my phone?". Maybe have a study of "IFTTT" and see if that has any pre-cooked hooks. — Kolban
@Kolban Thanks for your feedback. So it is not possible to create a fulfillment that sends an Android Intent directly to the smartphone? I don't think IFTTT has a "then" for an Android Device to start a specific application. — Marc Van Daele

Nick Felker Nick Felker · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-29T16:39:34

There is no direct way to do this. Here are a few ways to get close to the desired behavior:

When an intent is triggered on your Assistant surface, send a push notification to your phone (will require account linking). This push notification can then start an intent.
You can use a helper in the Action to request a new surface with a screen capability. This will not send an intent for your app, but will move the conversation over to a new surface which may make more sense. (This new surface may be able to present a Card with a deeplink into your app)