Get message

Action ID
actions.intent.GET_MESSAGE
Description

Search and view messages, such as text messages, voice messages, or emails. Filter messages by description and date range using the message.description and message.temporalCoverage intent parameters to present the most relevant ones to the user. Determine the message format (like voice, video, or text) using the message.disambiguatingDescription intent parameter. Note that the voice and video message formats are distinct from the format of an attachment to a text message.

For messages received by the user, determine the sender using the message.sender.name, message.sender.email, and message.sender.telephone intent parameters.

For messages sent by the user, determine the recipient using the message.recipient.name, message.recipient.email, and message.recipient.telephone intent parameters.

We also recommend creating deeper, voice-forward experiences by integrating our partner solution for messaging.

Locale support

Functionality Locales
Preview creation using App Actions test tool en-US
User invocation from Google Assistant en-US

Example queries

The following fields represent essential information that users often provide in queries that trigger this built-in intent:

message.temporalCoverage
message.description
message.disambiguatingDescription
message.recipient.name
message.recipient.email
message.recipient.telephone
message.sender.name
message.sender.email
message.sender.telephone

Other supported fields

The following fields represent information that users often provide to disambiguate their needs or otherwise improve their results:

message.@type
message.recipient.@type
message.sender.@type

Android widgets and slices

We recommend implementing Android widgets for this built-in intent. A widget presents information or interaction options from your app to improve user engagement in Google Assistant. Widgets are available for App Actions implementations using shortcuts.xml.

If you have a legacy App Actions implementation using actions.xml, use Android slices instead. We recommend migrating your implementation to shortcuts.xml to take advantage of widgets fulfillment and other improvements.

Supported text values by field





Inventory availability by field


Sample XML files

For information about the shortcuts.xml schema, see Create shortcuts.xml.

Handle BII parameters

shortcuts.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- This is a sample shortcuts.xml -->
<shortcuts xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
  <capability android:name="actions.intent.GET_MESSAGE">
    <intent
      android:action="android.intent.action.VIEW"
      android:targetPackage="YOUR_UNIQUE_APPLICATION_ID"
      android:targetClass="YOUR_TARGET_CLASS">
      <!-- Eg. description = "Message topic or message content" -->
      <parameter
        android:name="message.description"
        android:key="description"/>
      <!-- Eg. temporalCoverage = "2017-06-01T13:00:00Z/2018-03-11T15:30:00Z" -->
      <parameter
        android:name="message.temporalCoverage"
        android:key="temporalCoverage"/>
      <!-- Eg. disambiguatingDescription = "Video" -->
      <parameter
        android:name="message.disambiguatingDescription"
        android:key="disambiguatingDescription"/>
      <!-- Eg. senderName = "John Doe" -->
      <parameter
        android:name="message.sender.name"
        android:key="senderName"/>
      <!-- Eg. senderEmail = "johndoe@gmail.com" -->
      <parameter
        android:name="message.sender.email"
        android:key="senderEmail"/>
      <!-- Eg. recipientName = "Matthew" -->
      <parameter
        android:name="message.recipient.name"
        android:key="recipientName"/>
      <!-- Eg. recipientEmail = "matthew@gmail.com" -->
      <parameter
        android:name="message.recipient.email"
        android:key="recipientEmail"/>
      <!-- Eg. senderTelephone = "123-456-7890" -->
      <parameter
        android:name="message.sender.telephone"
        android:key="senderTelephone"/>
      <!-- Eg. recipientTelephone = "012-345-6789" -->
      <parameter
        android:name="message.recipient.telephone"
        android:key="recipientTelephone"/>
    </intent>
  </capability>
</shortcuts>

actions.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- This is a sample actions.xml -->
<actions>
  <action intentName="actions.intent.GET_MESSAGE">
    <fulfillment urlTemplate="myapp://custom-deeplink{?description,temporalCoverage,disambiguatingDescription,senderName,senderEmail,recipientName,recipientEmail,senderTelephone,recipientTelephone}">
      <!-- e.g. description = "Message topic or message content" -->
      <!-- (Optional) Require a field eg.description for fulfillment with required="true" -->
      <parameter-mapping urlParameter="description" intentParameter="message.description" required="true" />
      <!-- e.g. temporalCoverage = "2017-06-01T13:00:00Z/2018-03-11T15:30:00Z" -->
      <parameter-mapping urlParameter="temporalCoverage" intentParameter="message.temporalCoverage" />
      <!-- e.g. disambiguatingDescription = "Video" -->
      <parameter-mapping urlParameter="disambiguatingDescription" intentParameter="message.disambiguatingDescription" />
      <!-- e.g. senderName = "John Doe" -->
      <parameter-mapping urlParameter="senderName" intentParameter="message.sender.name" />
      <!-- e.g. senderEmail = "johndoe@gmail.com" -->
      <parameter-mapping urlParameter="senderEmail" intentParameter="message.sender.email" />
      <!-- e.g. recipientName = "Matthew" -->
      <parameter-mapping urlParameter="recipientName" intentParameter="message.recipient.name" />
      <!-- e.g. recipientEmail = "matthew@gmail.com" -->
      <parameter-mapping urlParameter="recipientEmail" intentParameter="message.recipient.email" />
      <!-- e.g. senderTelephone = "123-456-7890" -->
      <parameter-mapping urlParameter="senderTelephone" intentParameter="message.sender.telephone" />
      <!-- e.g. recipientTelephone = "012-345-6789" -->
      <parameter-mapping urlParameter="recipientTelephone" intentParameter="message.recipient.telephone" />
    </fulfillment>

    <!-- Provide a fallback fulfillment with no required parameters. For example, to your app search or router deeplink -->
    <fulfillment urlTemplate="myapp://deeplink" />
  </action>
</actions>

Use inline inventory

shortcuts.xml

message.disambiguatingDescription is an intent parameter that supports inline inventory. By defining a <shortcut> for message.disambiguatingDescription, you can uniquely identify entities that are of interest to your app or restrict fulfillment to the set of supported entities.

In the following example, when the user query matches the disambiguatingDescription_one shortcut, Assistant provides the associated shorcut identifier, ID_ONE, as the URL parameter disambiguatingDescription to fulfillment.

If there is no inventory match, the text value received in the query for message.disambiguatingDescription is passed as-is.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- This is a sample shortcuts.xml -->
<shortcuts xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
  <capability android:name="actions.intent.GET_MESSAGE">
    <intent
      android:targetPackage="YOUR_UNIQUE_APPLICATION_ID"
      android:targetClass="YOUR_TARGET_CLASS">
      <parameter
        android:name="message.description"
        android:key="description"/>
      <parameter
        android:name="message.temporalCoverage"
        android:key="temporalCoverage"/>
      <parameter
        android:name="message.disambiguatingDescription"
        android:key="disambiguatingDescription"/>
      <parameter
        android:name="message.sender.name"
        android:key="senderName"/>
      <parameter
        android:name="message.sender.email"
        android:key="senderEmail"/>
      <parameter
        android:name="message.recipient.name"
        android:key="recipientName"/>
      <parameter
        android:name="message.recipient.email"
        android:key="recipientEmail"/>
      <parameter
        android:name="message.sender.telephone"
        android:key="senderTelephone"/>
      <parameter
        android:name="message.recipient.telephone"
        android:key="recipientTelephone"/>
    </intent>
    </capability>
    <!-- Short and long labels must be @string resource. -->
    <shortcut
      android:shortcutId="ID_ONE"
      android:shortcutShortLabel="@string/shortcut_short_label"
      android:shortcutLongLabel="@string/shortcut_long_label">
      <capability-binding android:key="actions.intent.GET_MESSAGE">
        <parameter-binding
          android:value="disambiguatingDescription"
          android:key="message.disambiguatingDescription"/>
      </capability-binding>
    </shortcut>
</shortcuts>

actions.xml

message.disambiguatingDescription is an intent parameter that supports inline inventory. By defining an <entity-set> for message.disambiguatingDescription, you can uniquely identify entities that are of interest to your app or restrict fulfillment to the set of supported entities.

In the following example, when the user query matches the disambiguatingDescription_one entity, Assistant provides the associated identifier, ID_ONE, as the URL parameter disambiguatingDescription to fulfillment.

If there is no inventory match, the text value received in the query for message.disambiguatingDescription is passed as-is.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- This is a sample actions.xml -->
<actions>
  <action intentName="actions.intent.GET_MESSAGE">
    <fulfillment urlTemplate="myapp://deeplink{?disambiguatingDescription}" >
      <!-- disambiguatingDescription = "ID_ONE" or "ID_TWO"  -->
      <!-- If no inventory match, disambiguatingDescription is a text value, such as "Video" -->
      <!-- (Optional) Use entityMatchRequired="true" to require inventory match for fulfillment -->
      <parameter-mapping urlParameter="disambiguatingDescription" intentParameter="message.disambiguatingDescription" />
    </fulfillment>

    <!-- Define parameters with inventories here -->
    <parameter name="message.disambiguatingDescription">
      <entity-set-reference entitySetId="disambiguatingDescriptionEntitySet"/>
    </parameter>
  </action>

  <entity-set entitySetId="disambiguatingDescriptionEntitySet">
  <!-- Provide an identifier per entity -->
    <entity identifier="ID_ONE" name="disambiguatingDescription_one" alternateName="@array/disambiguatingDescription_one_synonyms"/>
    <entity identifier="ID_TWO" name="disambiguatingDescription_two" alternateName="@array/disambiguatingDescription_two_synonyms"/>
  </entity-set>
</actions>

The url attribute associated with the entity can be used to determine the fulfillment URL if there is an inventory match. In the following example, when the user query matches the disambiguatingDescription_one entity, Assistant provides myapp://deeplink/one as the fulfillment URL.

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
  <!-- This is a sample actions.xml -->
  <actions>
    <action intentName="actions.intent.GET_MESSAGE">
      <!-- Use url from inventory match for deep link fulfillment -->
      <fulfillment urlTemplate="{@url}" />

      <!-- Provide a fallback fulfillment with no required parameters. For example, to your app search or router deeplink -->
      <fulfillment urlTemplate="myapp://deeplink" />

      <!-- Define parameters with inventories here -->
      <parameter name="message.disambiguatingDescription">
        <entity-set-reference entitySetId="disambiguatingDescriptionEntitySet"/>
      </parameter>
    </action>

    <entity-set entitySetId="disambiguatingDescriptionEntitySet">
      <!-- Provide a URL per entity -->
      <entity url="myapp://deeplink/one" name="disambiguatingDescription_one" alternateName="@array/disambiguatingDescription_one_synonyms"/>
      <entity url="myapp://deeplink/two" name="disambiguatingDescription_two" alternateName="@array/disambiguatingDescription_two_synonyms"/>
    </entity-set>
  </actions>

JSON-LD sample

The following JSON-LD sample provides some example values that you can use in the App Actions test tool:

{
  "@context": "http://schema.org",
  "@type": "Message",
  "description": "Message topic or message content",
  "disambiguatingDescription": "Video",
  "recipient": {
    "@type": "Person",
    "email": "matthew@gmail.com",
    "name": "Matthew",
    "telephone": "012-345-6789"
  },
  "sender": {
    "@type": "Person",
    "email": "johndoe@gmail.com",
    "name": "John Doe",
    "telephone": "123-456-7890"
  },
  "temporalCoverage": "2017-06-01T13:00:00Z/2018-03-11T15:30:00Z"
}