Connect Google Chat to Cogno

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At a glance

Connect your organization’s Google Workspace and Cogno reads the conversation in the spaces you add it to, using it as workspace context and turning requests and follow-ups into Tasks. Mention the Cogno app in a space and Cogno starts working on a reply right away.

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Before you start

• Your organization uses Google Workspace. Personal Google accounts cannot connect.
• A Google Workspace administrator can sign in for you and install an app from the Google Workspace Marketplace for everyone in the organization.
• Your organization’s Google Workspace domain is not already connected to another Cogno workspace. One domain feeds one Cogno workspace.

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Connect Google Chat in Cogno

Connecting has two stages, both done by the same Google Workspace admin. The page lists them under How connecting works.

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Add Cogno to spaces

Cogno cannot join spaces by itself. In Google Chat, add the Cogno app to each space you want it to read. When it joins, the app introduces itself in the space, and Cogno starts receiving that space’s messages right away. The Spaces section of the Google Chat page lists every space the Cogno app has been added to, with its type (Space or Group chat) and when it was last updated. A space the app was removed from is marked Removed, and a space that lets in people from outside your organization is marked External users allowed. A space Google will not let Cogno read is marked Not readable, with the reason. Direct messages with the app are not listed.

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What Cogno reads

• Read: new messages in spaces the Cogno app is in, and direct messages people in your organization send to the app.
• Spaces that allow external users: read like any other space when Google allows it, including messages from guests outside your organization. Cogno can read such a space when the organization that owns it has approved the Cogno app; otherwise Google refuses, and the space is marked Not readable. Cogno asks Google again about every half hour, and again whenever the app is added back.
• Never read: direct messages that do not include the Cogno app, and spaces the app is not in.
• Ignored: messages sent by Chat apps, including Cogno’s own.

A guest from outside your organization is not in your directory, so their messages carry the name and address Google Chat sends, if any, and are never linked to a Cogno member.

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Choose spaces for a Project

A Project reads every space Cogno reads until you narrow it to some of them. Once a Project reads only some spaces, messages from the others create no Attention or Tasks for that Project.

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Mention Cogno and ask for help

• @mention the Cogno app in a space it reads and Cogno treats it as a request and starts a Run to answer at once.
• Send help (or /help, ヘルプ, 使い方) to the app and it explains how it works and links to Cogno, where you choose which spaces each Project reads.
• Message the app directly and Cogno treats it like an @mention: the app answers Got it — I’m on it. I’ll reply here. and a Run replies in that direct message. It can go to any Project that has not turned Google Chat off; when there is more than one, Cogno picks the Project the request belongs to. If every Project has turned Google Chat off, the app says so instead.

The app replies in English or Japanese, following the language of the person who wrote to it. Cogno may also answer a plan, to-do list or question someone shares in the conversation even when nobody mentions it, and a request to stop or change a routine is always handled. A follow-up in the same thread joins the answer already under way instead of starting a second one.

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Set agent access

On the Google Chat page, Agent tools controls what agents may do through this connection. Read Google Chat lets agents search the stored messages of the Project’s spaces, read a space’s recent messages and whole threads, list the spaces, and look up the people in your organization’s directory. It reads only what Cogno stored since the space was connected, and only the spaces the Project reads. It defaults to Allow. Send to Google Chat posts messages and replies in threads as the Cogno app, in the Project’s spaces and in direct messages people sent the app. It defaults to Allow, so an @mention or a direct message is answered. Choose Block to prevent it, Ask to require your approval during an interactive run, or Allow to let it run without asking. Changes apply to the next run; disconnecting stops access immediately. Agents can post only in spaces the app is still in and the Project reads, and in direct messages between the app and people in your organization when the Project has not turned Google Chat off. Chat replies stay short: a post of more than 12 lines is refused and nothing is sent unless the person asked for the full text, so Cogno leads with the conclusion, turns a long list into an image or its top three, and keeps the details in the Task. In Project integrations, the row starts on the workspace setting. A Project can restrict access further but cannot grant more access than the workspace allows.

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Members

Google Chat identifies a sender only by an internal id, so Cogno reads your organization’s directory for each person’s name and address. Someone whose address matches a Cogno account in this workspace is linked automatically. Cogno refreshes this when you connect and four times a day. Expand Member mapping to see the result, choose Sync members to refresh it now, or map a person to a Cogno member by hand.

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Disconnect

Open the ⋯ menu on the connection row and choose Disconnect, then confirm. The Cogno app stays installed in your Google Workspace; a Google Workspace admin can remove it from the Admin console.

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Common states

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Reference URLs

• Google Workspace Marketplace
• Google Chat apps

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Related docs

• Integrations
• Troubleshooting