With the Zurich Patch 4 update—and starting from Conversational Integration with Google Chat version 2.0—ServiceNow now brings Now Assist for Virtual Agent directly into Google Chat. Before Zurich, Google Chat only supported the standard, built‑in Virtual Agent features.

In this article, I’ll walk you through the key prerequisites for setting up this integration, guide you step‑by‑step through the configuration process, and point out several important details that aren’t fully covered in the official ServiceNow documentation.

 

Pre-requisites:

• Your instance must be on Zurich Patch 4 or later
• You need the Pro Plus or Enterprise Plus SKU
• The Conversational Integration with Google Chat app from the ServiceNow Store must be installed (sn_va_google_chat), version 2.0.4 or higher
• An active Google Workspace/Google Chat account
• The Virtual Agent Adapter Common plugin (sn_va_adapter) must be enabled.
  Note: This plugin isn’t listed as a dependency in the Google Chat integration app, but it’s essential for the setup to function properly.

 

Configuration Required on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Project

For this integration to work, we need Google Chat API. Let us dive deep into the step-by-step configuration to be performed on the GCP Project.

 

Step 1: We will start by selecting or creating a Google Cloud Platform Project. Navigate to https://console.cloud.google.com/projectselector2 and select the project in which you want to enable the Chat API. If you don’t have any project created Click on Create Project.

 

Step 2: Next, navigate to https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/enableflow;apiid=chat.googleapis.com?project={projectName} where {projectName} is the name of your project. Follow the instructions displayed on the screen and enable the Chat API.

 

 

Step 3: Next, we will configure the Chat API to integrate with the ServiceNow instance. Navigate to https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/api/chat.googleapis.com/hangouts-chat?project={projectName} where {projectName} is the name of your project to land into the configuration tab.

 

Step 4: Within the configuration tab, provide the application information like the Application Name, Avatar URL and Application Description. For this blog, you can use the Avatar URL as https://image2url.com/r2/default/images/1770381380683-20b9b800-1254-4621-8e75-33bc8641c757.png.

 

Step 5: Under the interactive features section, ensure that Enable Interactive Features is selected.

 

Step 6: In the connection settings section, ensure that HTTP endpoint URL is selected and under triggers section, select  Use a common HTTP endpoint URL for all triggers. In the HTTP endpoint URL field, enter the instance name and the URL extension https://<instanceName>.service-now.com/api/sn_va_google_chat/va_google_chat_inbound/events as shown in snip below. Replace instance name with your instance name.

 

Step 7: Under the Visibility section, ensure Make this Chat app available to specific people and groups is selected. Here, you can add individual email IDs or groups within your domain to whom you want to cascade the access to this application. For this blog post, we will type in our email address for testing.

 

Step 8: Click on Save. Scroll up within the API configuration to copy the Service Account Email. This will be the Inbound Service Account email which will be required in the further steps.

 

Step 9: From the side Panel, navigate to Credentials tab. Within the Service Accounts section, click on Manage Service Accounts. Here, we will create an Outbound Service Account for ServiceNow to communicate securely with GCP Project. Click on Create Service Account button at the top.

 

 

Step 10:  Provide a relevant Service Account Name and Description. The Service Account ID will be automatically generated based on the name provided. Copy the ID generated, this will be our Outbound Service Account Email. Once you are ready, click on Create and Continue. Finally, click on Done.

 

Step 11: On the Service Accounts page, click on three dots under the action column for the Service Account created and click on Manage Keys.

 

Step 12: Click on Add Key -> Create New Key.

 

Step 13: Under the Key Type, select P12 and Click on Create. A. p12 file be downloaded to your system. Also, a Private Key password will be shown to you. Keep a note of this as it will not be available once you click on close button.

 

With this, we have completed the GCP side configuration requirements. Next, let us move to the ServiceNow instance for further configuration.

 

Configuration Required on ServiceNow Instance

Before we start the configuration within the ServiceNow instance, ensure that Google chat plugin [sn_va_google-chat] is installed.

 

Step 1: Navigate to All > Conversational Interfaces > Channels and Integrations. Under the Available Channels section, select Add Integration for Google Chat tile.

 

Step 2: Fill in all the information from prior steps within the Integrate Google Chat with self-configured bot form. Provide a relevant Bot Name, the inbound and outbound service account emails need to be copied from GCP Project as discussed earlier in this blog. Finally, the Service Account .p12 key is to be uploaded and Password need to be provided.

 

If you don’t see the option to attach the .p12 file, refer to the end of this blog to troubleshoot this issue.

 

Step 3: Click on Submit Button.

 

Step 4: Next, we need to enable Now Assist in Virtual Agent within the Google Chat Channel. For the same, navigate to Conversational Interfaces -> Assistant Designer. Under the Assistants tab, click on Edit button under Now Assist in Virtual Agent pane.

 

Step 5: Click on Go to display experiences link.

 

Step 6: Under the display experiences pane, go to Channels section and select the Google Chat Channel. Once done, click on Save Button on the top.

 

Step 7: We are now ready to test our integration. Navigate to Google Chat and click on New Chat button. Search for “Joey” and install the application. Once you are in the chat, type “Hi” for the Now Assist in Virtual Agent to respond back.

 

 

Congratulations! You’ve successfully integrated Google Chat with Now Assist in Virtual Agent. As you can see, enabling Now Assist for Virtual Agent inside Google Chat brings a powerful boost to your employee experience—right where conversations are already happening. With the right prerequisites in place and a clear setup path, this integration becomes straightforward and highly rewarding. I hope this walkthrough helps you avoid the common gaps in documentation and gives you the confidence to roll out the feature smoothly.

 

Bonus Tip: Common UI Builder Issue You Might Encounter

 

While setting up the Google Chat integration, a lot of developers run into an unexpected hurdle on the ServiceNow side — the configuration screen simply won’t let you upload the .p12 file, even though all the required plugins and settings appear to be in place.

 

The issue you would probably face would be as shown below:

 

The Integrate Google Chat with Self‑Configured Bot form won’t let you upload the .p12 certificate at all. Instead, you’ll only be met with an error stating: “Component is not configured. Add details in the configuration pane.”

 

To resolve this issue, we need to go to UI Builder and open the CI Admin experience.

 

Open the Channel Self-Configured Bot Install default Page by clicking on Open Editor button. Ensure that you are in the Omni-Experience Standard Feature Set Application Scope to edit this page.

 

In the Content Pane, scroll down to the end to the .p12 Attachment Upload Preset. Click on this Preset to open the Configure Pane on the right side.

 

As you can see, the Sys ID and Table fields are being to set to Null records. We will edit them to the Form Input fields but prior to this, we need to ensure that the Test Values is set to “google-chat” as shown below.

 

Next, we will click on the Table Record field to make it and the Sys ID field editable.

 

Once we are in the edit mode, we need to map the sys_id to record->inputs->inputSysId and Table to record->inputs->inputTable as shown in the screenshots below:

 

 

After mapping them, you will observe that the attachments field is now visible. Click on Save and navigate to the Integrate Google Chat with self configured bot page to check if the attachment field is now available.

 

 

Now, when we refresh the Integrate Google Chat with self configured bot page, we could see the Attachments field is made available to upload the .p12 file.