Connected actions: live answers from your other apps

Some answers live in another app: today's stock in your warehouse system, a price in your quoting tool, figures in a database you run. A connected action lets your Secretary look them up while it chats, then answer from what comes back.

1. Give the app a keyIntegration, API keys.
2. The app adds actionsThey arrive switched off.
3. Test each oneWith real values.
4. Switch it onLive on every text channel.

Connecting an app

1. Open Integration, then API keys, and create a key named after the app. Give it to the app's team, or paste it into the app's settings.
2. The app registers its actions, and can also push text your Secretary answers from, like FAQs and policies.
3. Open Integration, then Connected actions. Each action arrives switched off.

Developers building the app: see the developer guide to connected actions.

Testing and switching on

For each action, read what it says it does, then press Test. Fill in the details a customer would give and send it: you see exactly what your Secretary would read. When the answer looks right, press Switch on.

From then on, when a customer asks something the action covers, your Secretary calls it and answers from it, on your chat page, website widget, WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, Messenger and email. Phone calls do not use actions yet.

What an action can and cannot do

• It only looks things up. It cannot book, charge, cancel or change anything. Bookings, orders and payments still go through Ordina.
• Your Secretary quotes what the action returned and never invents a figure. If the app is down or slow, it tells the customer it could not check just now.
• The app receives only what the customer asked for that question, your business handle and a conversation id; never their name, email or phone.

Staying in control

• Switch off an action at any time; your Secretary stops calling it at once. Remove it to delete it and its history.
• If the app changes the address an action calls, it switches itself off until you switch it on again.
• Recent calls under each action show what was asked, whether it answered, and how long it took. After 3 failures in a row you see a warning.

Knowledge from connected apps

Text an app pushes appears under Knowledge from connected apps on the same page, and in your knowledge sources on the Store page, marked as added by a connected app. It counts toward your plan's knowledge sources (3 on Pro, 5 on Business). Remove any of it from your knowledge sources.

Plans

Connected actions are part of the Pro and Business plans. If your plan lapses, your Secretary stops calling actions until it is active again.