Google Chat Integration Guide

Google Chat is an intelligent and secure communication and collaboration tool, built for teams. From ad-hoc messaging to topic-based workstream collaboration, Google Chat makes it easy to get work done where the conversation is happening. The Zenduty Incident Management platform fetches alerts from your monitoring apps, creates and assigns incidents based on schedules and escalation policies and intimates engineers on call. When these two applications come together, the result is a fast, stress-free incident-resolution process.

How to Set Up a Google Chat Integration for Zenduty:

There are two ways to receive Google Chat notifications from Zenduty

1. As a Personal Notification

Through this method, you can instruct Zenduty to notify you on Google Chat whenever an incident is assigned to you. This can be in place of, or in addition to notifications via phone call or SMS.
You can add your Google Chat handle to your notification rules and set up when you want to be alerted on Google Chat.

First, you'll need to directly message the Zenduty Google Chatbot, which would initiate the Connection request.

1. On Google Chat, first click on the + button beside your personal chats and search for Zenduty.

   

2. Proceed by clicking on the link given by the Bot, to initialize the linking process (You can also initialize by typing the /connect command).

   

3. In Zenduty, proceed by connecting.

The Zenduty bot is now added as your personal contact method.

2. As an Outgoing Integration

Through this method, you can instruct Zenduty to notify a Google Chat space whenever an incident is assigned to the Service that you connected it to.

First, you'll need to directly message the Zenduty Google Chatbot, which would initiate the personal Connection request. Follow the steps above for the same.
Next, in the space that you want to be alerted on with your teammates, add the Zenduty Bot.

1. On Google Chat, In the space that you want to add the bot, Search for the Zenduty bot.

   

2. On Adding the Zenduty Google Chatbot, it initializes a connection request (You can also initialize by typing the /connect command).

   

3. In Zenduty, proceed by selecting the Team and the Services you want to connect the bot to (you can connect multiple Services in the Teams that you manage).

Note: You no longer need to generate a new link for each service. A single connection link can be used to integrate multiple services, simplifying the setup process for teams managing several services within the same Google Chat space.

The Zenduty bot is now added in your Google Chat Space to notify you and your teammates if any Incidents come up.

Note: You can add multiple services to one Google space using the '/connect' command

How the Google Chat Integration for Zenduty Works:

Once set up, all Zenduty alerts will reflect on Google Chat.

1. Alerts about incidents assigned to you will be sent as a personal message to you (based on the notification rules you set up). You can then acknowledge, resolve or assign Zenduty incidents within Google Chat.

   

2. All alerts about a service with a Google Chat channel integration will be sent to the Google Chat channel. Any team member can then acknowledge, resolve or assign Zenduty incidents within Google Chat.

The Available slash commands on Gchat:

On-Call search:

The Zenduty Google Chat bot allows you to search for and view on-call users associated with a specific escalation policy. Use the available command to trigger the bot, search for escalation policies, and retrieve the list of on-call users.

Available Text Commands on Google Chat:
@Zenduty whoisoncall - View on-call users of an escalation policy.

Steps to View On-Call Users of an Escalation Policy
Type the Command
In the chat, type:
@Zenduty whoisoncall

Trigger the Zenduty Bot Prompt
After sending the command, a Zenduty bot prompt will appear, asking you to input the escalation policy name.

Search for the Escalation Policy

In the input text field, type the name of the escalation policy.
You must type at least 3 characters to trigger the search.
Press Enter to proceed.
Select the Matching Escalation Policy
The Zenduty bot prompt will update with a list of matching escalation policies based on your search query.

Select the escalation policy you want to view the on-call users for.
View On-Call Users
A new Zenduty bot prompt will appear, showing the on-call users for the selected escalation policy. The prompt will display users for different levels of escalation if applicable.

This flow provides a seamless way to query escalation policies and view on-call users directly from Google Chat using the Zenduty bot.

Unlinking your account on Google Chat

You can unlink your account by typing /settings in your Google Chat, and clicking on Unlink in front of your name in the pop-up that appears

Note: You do not need a paid Zenduty account to receive Zenduty alerts on Google Chat. Subscribers of any plan are eligible to receive unlimited free alerts on Google Chat, just like Slack and Microsoft Teams