Enterprises can now build their own chat apps via Google’s DialogFlow

Global technology giant Google has released an enterprise chat builder app called DialogFlow on its cloud platform, the company said in a blog post.

Enterprises can use the app to build conversational interfaces such as chatbots for websites, mobile applications, messaging platforms, and Internet of Things devices. The interfaces are powered by machine learning and natural language processing, allowing them to recognise the intent and context of what a user says, the blog post added.

The launch of the app comes at a time when many developers are building bots for their apps and websites to smoothen customer experience, cut down cost, and gather data.

DialogFlow was developed by the team behind API.AI, which Google acqui-hired in 2016. API.AI developed tools to build chatbots and Siri-like bots.
DialogFlow can operate not only on Google but also on other platforms such as Amazon Alexa and Facebook Messenger. 

“Starting today, you can combine batch operations that would have required multiple API calls into a single API call, reducing lines of code and shortening development time. Dialogflow API V2 is also now the default for all new agents, integrating with Google Cloud speech-to-text, enabling agent management via API, supporting gRPC, and providing an easy transition to Enterprise Edition with no code migration,” Dan Aharon, Google’s product manager for Cloud AI, wrote in a blog post.

The new tool is available in 30 languages.

This is not Google's first attempt at developing an enterprise-focused tool. In March this year, the tech behemoth launched an enterprise messaging service, Hangouts Chat, to take on Slack, Microsoft, Facebook, Alibaba, and Indian app Flock. The tool is part of Google's G suite of services, which is a workplace software package that includes email and word-processing tools.

Around the same time, Google said it was looking to partner with software vendors in India to market its cloud services to local businesses in the country.