Display your assistant on a portal or channel
Select at least one portal or integrate with your preferred messaging channels to display your assistant.
Before you begin
Role required: virtual_agent_admin or admin
Procedure
-
On the Portals tab, select one or more portals from the Add Portal drop-down list or integrate with your preferred messaging channels to display Virtual Agent.
Note:For Now Assist panel assistants (Platform and Developer), there aren't any Portals, Channels, or Mobile tabs.
- For Now Assist panel assistant (Platform), select the Unified Navigation app shell link to test Now Assist panel assistant (Platform).
- For Now Assist panel assistant (Developer), select the Studio link to test Now Assist panel assistant (Developer).
Figure 1. Options for where Virtual Agent appears One portal can only include one assistant. Any portal in the list that is already used is unavailable for selection.
Natural Language Understanding (NLU)-based Virtual Agent doesn't coexist with Now Assist in Virtual Agent. They can coexist in the same instance, but not within the same portal.
- Choose between the standard or enhanced chat experience, and then select Add. For more information, see Standard chat and Enhanced chat.Note:If you're a new customer and haven't set up an assistant with a display experience, only the enhanced chat option is available.
Figure 2. Standard or enhanced chat experience for your portal If your portal has AI Search activated, enhanced chat includes the option to turn on the enhanced chat experience. Select Allow the search bar to open into a full-page chat experience. For more information about whether your portal meets the requirements to have users chat from search results, see Portal prerequisites for enhanced chat.Note:For information about the enhanced chat experience option, see Using Now Assist in Virtual Agent.When you activate enhanced chat in a portal, that portal uses the VA Search Profile instead of the search profile specified in the portal's search application configuration. To learn more about search profiles and how they affect search behavior, see Search profiles in AI Search.Note:Customer Service Management (CSM) portals don't have the full-page experience option.If the Now Assist Q&A skill isn't enabled for the assistant, the enhanced chat experience is unavailable.
If the portal has an NLU assistant enabled, the LLM assistant replaces it.
- Select the ellipsis to remove a portal or edit settings to toggle between enhanced chat and standard chat.
Figure 3. Edit experience or remove a portal - Select the Allow public access for this assistant check box to enable Virtual Agent on public pages for all selected portals.
Selecting the check box only makes the assistant response publicly available to guest users. In addition to selecting the check box, make sure that the UI page and standard chat are also public. For more information, see Make UI pages public or private, Configure page security by role, and Configure widget security.
For public access across the entire instance, see .
On the Channels tab, Now Assist in Virtual Agent integrates with these channels: Slack, Microsoft Teams, SMS with Twilio, WhatsApp, and Amazon Connect. If the plugins are already installed, the available channel cards aren't displayed. For more information on integrating Virtual Agent with messaging apps, see Virtual Agent integration with messaging apps.
Figure 4. Channels that integrate with Virtual Agent Getting the plugin redirects you to the ServiceNow Store. After the plugins are installed and configured, you can then select the ones that you want the assistant to integrate with.
In the Mobile tab, if no mobile app is selected to display standard chat or enhanced chat, users see the traditional NLU Virtual Agent in the mobile app. There are three different mobile app components that admins can integrate with an assistant: mobile search widget, chat launcher, and a custom app (mobile SDK).
- To use Now Assist in Virtual Agent on your mobile app, download the Now Mobile App or Agent App and use Mobile App Builder to configure Virtual Agent in the app.
If the application for mobile in the Now Assist Admin console is turned on, Now Assist large language model (LLM) is enabled in Virtual Agent for application on mobile.
For information about mobile prerequisites, see Mobile app prerequisites for enhanced chat.Select a mobile search widget from the Add search widget drop-down list. The assistant must have the enhanced chat experience enabled.
Figure 5. Integrate your assistant with a mobile application The Add chat experience pop-up window appears. Select a mobile search configuration, and then select Add.
Figure 6. Select a mobile search configuration for the assistant The search widget configuration is added to the Search widget name list.
In the Chat launcher functions drop-down list, select a function to open the assistant. Optionally, you can also select a mobile search configuration.
Figure 7. Select an optional mobile search configuration for the assistant Note:Any prior Virtual Agent configurations that applied to the NOW mobile or Agent apps are migrated to apply to the chat launcher functions.The Add chat launcher function pop-up window appears. Select standard chat or enhanced chat, and then select Add.
The Custom apps section is displayed when a mobile SDK plugin is installed. Select a custom mobile app integrated with the mobile SDK that launches this assistant.
The Add custom app pop-up window appears. Select standard chat or enhanced chat, and then select Add.
- Select the ellipsis to remove a mobile app or edit settings to toggle between the enhanced chat and standard chat experience, if standard chat is available to you.