Google Assistant App in 5 min! Android

Google Assistant App

I’ll be teaching you how to create your own Google Assistant app in less than five minutes in this article. The nice part is that this doesn’t require any coding knowledge. Therefore, you may use this guide to create a Google Assistant app that uses flash cards, trivia, or a personality quiz if you have an app idea but don’t know how to code. All you have to do is connect your Action on Google project with a corpus.

Step 1: Set Up Your Android Project

• Open Android Studio and create a new project.
• Choose “Empty Activity” and set the language to Kotlin.
• Set the minimum SDK to API 21 (Lollipop) or higher.

Step 2: Add Dependencies

Open your build.gradle (app) file and add the following dependencies:

dependencies {
    implementation "com.google.android.gms:play-services-assistant:18.0.0"
    // Other dependencies...
}

Step 3: Update AndroidManifest.xml

Make sure your AndroidManifest.xml has the necessary permissions and configurations. Add the following inside the <application> tag:

<activity
    android:name=".MainActivity"
    android:label="@string/app_name"
    android:exported="true">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
    </intent-filter>
</activity>

<!-- Add the Assistant integration -->
<meta-data
    android:name="com.google.android.gms.assistant.API_KEY"
    android:value="YOUR_API_KEY_HERE" />

Step 4: Create a Simple User Interface

In res/layout/activity_main.xml, add a simple UI:

<LinearLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:gravity="center">

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/welcomeText"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Say something to Google Assistant!"
        android:textSize="20sp"/>

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/buttonSpeak"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Speak"/>
</LinearLayout>

Step 5: Implement the MainActivity

Now, let’s implement the logic in MainActivity.kt:

package com.example.assistantapp

import android.content.Intent
import android.os.Bundle
import android.speech.RecognizerIntent
import android.speech.SpeechRecognizer
import android.speech.SpeechRecognizer.RESULTS_RECOGNITION
import android.widget.Button
import android.widget.TextView
import androidx.activity.result.contract.ActivityResultContracts
import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity

class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {

    private lateinit var welcomeText: TextView
    private lateinit var buttonSpeak: Button

    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)

        welcomeText = findViewById(R.id.welcomeText)
        buttonSpeak = findViewById(R.id.buttonSpeak)

        buttonSpeak.setOnClickListener {
            startVoiceRecognition()
        }
    }

    private fun startVoiceRecognition() {
        val intent = Intent(RecognizerIntent.ACTION_RECOGNIZE_SPEECH)
        intent.putExtra(RecognizerIntent.EXTRA_LANGUAGE_MODEL, RecognizerIntent.LANGUAGE_MODEL_FREE_FORM)
        intent.putExtra(RecognizerIntent.EXTRA_PROMPT, "Speak now...")

        speechRecognizer.launch(intent)
    }

    private val speechRecognizer = registerForActivityResult(ActivityResultContracts.StartActivityForResult()) { result ->
        if (result.resultCode == RESULT_OK) {
            val data = result.data?.getStringArrayListExtra(RecognizerIntent.EXTRA_RESULTS)
            val spokenText = data?.get(0) ?: "No speech recognized"
            welcomeText.text = spokenText
            respondToAssistant(spokenText)
        }
    }

    private fun respondToAssistant(spokenText: String) {
        // Simple response based on spoken text
        if (spokenText.contains("hello", true)) {
            welcomeText.text = "Hello! How can I assist you?"
        } else {
            welcomeText.text = "You said: $spokenText"
        }
    }
}

Step 6: Run Your App

1. Connect your Android device or start an emulator.
2. Build and run your app.
3. Tap the “Speak” button and talk to your Google Assistant!

Conclusion

This is a basic example of configuring an Android app with Kotlin to communicate with Google Assistant. It can be expanded by including more intricate intent handling and functionalities.

Happy coding!

If you have any questions or need further clarification, feel free to ask!