Google Chat is a real-time messaging and collaboration platform, designed to facilitate communication and teamwork among individuals and groups. It is a useful tool for both personal and professional use. 

Benefits of Integrating Google Chat and Desk

The integration of Google Chat and Desk helps businesses provide their customer support team with a seamless workspace, allowing them to operate from a single interface. Some benefits of the integration include:

1. Enhanced customer support: Support agents can access critical information and insights directly within the Google Chat interface. This means quicker issue resolution, reduced response times, and improved customer satisfaction.
   
2. Efficient task management: Desk's ticketing system and Google Chat integration enable agents to view, create, assign, comment, and update status of the customer support tickets directly from their Google Chat window. 
   
3. Efficient communication: Google Chat's real-time messaging capabilities enable seamless communication among support teams. Agents can easily share information, collaborate on issues, and resolve customer queries more effectively.
   

Availability 

Permission Required
Users with the Administrative and Agent profiles in Zoho Desk can integrate Google Chat and Desk. While all users can integrate Google Chat with Desk, configuring space settings in Desk is required for org admins to enable slash commands and receive notifications from Desk within a Google Chat space.

Edition: The Google Chat integration is available in Standard, Professional, and Enterprise editions.

Check Feature Availability and Limits

Integrating Zoho Desk to Google Chats 

Integrating Google Chat with Zoho Desk includes the following steps:

Creating a space in Google Chat

Users can add their Zoho Desk account to Google Chats by creating a Google Chat Space, a central place where people can share files, assign tasks, and stay connected. Within the Google Chat Spaces, users can collaborate on customer tickets and perform ticket actions such as updating the status of the ticket, adding comments, and more. Spaces are typically organized around specific topics, projects, or teams. 

Integrating Zoho Desk with Google Chat

Once users create spaces in Google Chat, they can seamlessly integrate Zoho Desk with Google Chat. This integration empowers users to collaborate on customer tickets, perform ticket actions like status updates and comments, and share files within these spaces. It streamlines communication and enhances teamwork, making it easier for teams to stay connected and efficiently manage customer support inquiries.

Creating Personal Chat

Users also have the option to customize their Personal Chat settings in Google Chat to receive updates, notifications, and other information tailored specifically to them (user-specific). For example, if a user wants to receive notifications in Google Chat whenever they are mentioned in a ticket, they can enable the personal chat notification settings to achieve this. Likewise, if a user prefers to focus on viewing only their recent tickets rather than those of others, they can utilize the personal chat window for this purpose.

Points to remember

1. Google Chat users must be added to the Zoho Desk account. Only those users who are added can access the tickets in the respective Google Chat Space.
   
2. Users can execute the actions mentioned below on the tickets within the Google Chat Space based on their profile permissions defined in the Zoho Desk. For example, a support agent with relevant permissions could update a ticket's status directly from Google Chat, whereas individuals lacking the requisite permissions would be unable to update the status of the ticket.
   
3. Personal Chat is user-specific, and the commands and notifications are visible only to the respective user.
   
4. If the user has already signed in with the Zoho account while integrating Zoho Desk with Spaces, they will not be prompted to sign in again while trying to integrate. They can directly configure the department, portal, and notifications settings.
   

Actions under Google Chat Spaces and Personal Chat

Users can perform various actions in Google Chat Spaces and personal chat using the below mentioned commands. These commands enable users to retrieve or add data into their Zoho Desk account.

• /zohodesk_create_ticket - Use this command to create new support tickets.
  
  
  
  
• /zohodesk_duetoday - This command provides a list of tickets that are due on the current day.
• /zohodesk_open - To retrieve a list of tickets with an "open" status.
• /zohodesk_overdue - To view the overdue tickets.
• /zohodesk_revoke - This command allows the user to unlink Zoho Desk and Google Chat within a specific Space. Other users sharing the same space can continue to use the integrations. However, the user won't receive individual notifications from Desk. Note that this doesn't removes the integration of Desk and Google Chat.
  
  
  
  
• /zohodesk_search_ticket - To get a support ticket using the ticket id. Users need to enter the ticket number along with the slash command to search for a specific ticket.
  
  
  
  
• /zohodesk_setConfigurations - Use this command to view or modify the configuration settings for the respective Google Chat Space.
  
  
  
  
• /zohodesk_stats - To fetch and display the last seven days of Desk statistics directly within the Google Chat Space.
  
  
  
  
• /zohodesk_tickets - This command lists the ten most recent support tickets from the selected Desk department configured for the Google Chat Space. In the tickets pop-up window, users can perform the following actions:
• Choose to share a specific ticket or post all ten tickets in the space.
  
  
  
  
• Assign owner for a specific ticket.
  
  
  
  
• Update the status of a support ticket.
  
  
  
  
• Add public or private comment in a support ticket.
  
  
  
  
• View the support ticket in Zoho Desk in a separate tab.
  
  
  
  
• /zohodesk_unassigned - To view a list of unassigned tickets.
  

Note: Commands in the Personal Chat are specific to an individual. For example, when a user uses the /zohodesk_open command, the Personal Chat will fetch a list of that specific user's open tickets.

Google space and personal chat notifications 

Users can enable or disable the following space and/or personal chat notifications while configuring Zoho Desk for Google Chat Space. These notifications will keep users informed and updated about activities and events within the integrated workspace. 

Note: The following notifications are available only in Personal chat: 

• Mentioned in a ticket
• Ticket assigned
• Assigned a blueprint transition
• Ticket assignment 

 To create spaces in google chats

1. Log in with your Google credentials in Google Chat.
2. Next to Spaces, click the Create a space icon (  ) in the left pane.
3. Select Create a space option.
   
   
   
   
4. In the Create a space window, do the following:
   
1. Enter the Space name.
2. Provide an optional description for the space.
3. Enter the name or group or email of the people you want to add.
   
4. Choose the desired space access. 
   You can select Restricted to directly add and invite users who have access to the space, or All of your organization to provide everyone in your organization access to the space.
5. To invite external people into the space, check Allow people outside your organization to join.
6. To allow only space managers to post, check Only space managers can post.
   
   
   
   
5.  Click Create.
   

Once the Google Chat Space has been set up, users can start integrating Desk.

To integrate Zoho Desk with Google Chat Spaces

1. Navigate to the desired Google Chat Space.
2. Click the [space name] drop-down and select Apps & integrations.
   
   
   
   
3. Click Add apps, and search for and select Zoho Desk app.
4. Click Add.
   A Zoho Desk welcome card appears automatically in your chat space.
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. In the Zoho Desk welcome card, click the Get Started button to sign in to your Zoho account.
   Users can Login with Google Workspace or Login with Zoho.
   
   
   
   
6. Once logged in, click Setup Configuration.
   A new browser tab will appear to configure the Zoho Desk for Google Chat.
   
   
   
   
7. In the Configuration page, do the following:
   
1. Choose the desired Desk Portal and Desk Department from the drop-down list.
2. Toggle the desired Space Notifications.
   
   
   
   
8. Click Save Configuration.
9. Click Help to view the available actions within the chat space.
   
   
   
   
10. In the Google Chat Space window, type / (slash) to use the Zoho Desk slash commands.
    
    
    
    

To configure personal chat in Google Chat

1. Next to Chat, click the plus icon (  ) in the left pane.
2. Search for and select Zoho Desk app.
   A Zoho Desk welcome card will appear automatically in your personal chat window.
   
   
   
   
3. In the Zoho Desk welcome card, click the Get Started button to sign in to your Zoho account.
   Users can Log in with Google Workspace or Log in with Zoho.
   
   
   
   
4. Click Setup Configuration to configure Zoho Desk for personal chat.
   A new browser tab will appear to configure the Zoho Desk for Google Chat.
5. In the Configuration page, do the following:
   
1. Choose the desired Desk Portal and Desk Department from the drop-down list.
2. Toggle the desired Personal Notifications.
   
   
   
   
6. Click Save Configuration. 

Removing the integration of Desk and Google Chat 

Removing the integration between Desk and Google Chat involves the process of disconnecting the two platforms, effectively ending their communication and shared functionality. This action may be necessary when you no longer wish to use Google Chat as part of your Desk process, or if you need to reset the integration for any reason. After the integration is removed, users will no longer have access to or be able to execute any actions using the Desk commands that were previously used in the Google Chat space.

Note, any Google user in the Google Chat Space can remove the integration between Desk and Google Chat.

To remove the integration of Desk and Google Chat 

1. Navigate to the desired Google Chat space.
2. Click the [Space name] drop-down and select Apps & integrations.
3. Under Apps, hover over Zoho Desk app and click more.
4. Click Remove from Space.
   
   

See also: About Google Chat Space and Creating a space in Google Chat.