Using enhanced chat on mobile
Enhanced Chat on mobile offers a dynamic conversational support experience that integrates powerful AI-driven search and chat capabilities. You can seamlessly switch between multiple conversations, receive synthesized responses with inline citations, and access both knowledge articles and catalog items.
Opening an enhanced chat
- Tap the Now Assist icon (
) on your mobile home page to open a chat window. - Enter your request into the home page search bar to initiate a conversation, automatically opening the Virtual Agent chat interface.
Depending on your organization’s configuration, the search bar on your mobile support portal can expand into a full-page chat experience. If full-page chat isn’t enabled, the search bar remains in its standard form, providing quick search capabilities without navigating away from your current view. For information on configuring full-page search, see Configuring assistants overview.
Chatting with the Virtual Agent
Enhanced chat combines chat and search capabilities in one. When using the search bar, regular search results appear in addition to the option to direct your query to the Now Assist Virtual Agent.
When chatting with the Virtual Agent, you can enter your questions or describe your issue in plain, natural language. The agent will analyze your input and respond with synthesized answers, suggest relevant knowledge articles, and provide you with suggested next steps. Switch between multiple active chats and continue previous agent conversations at any time.
The generated responses synthesize multiple sources into one cohesive summary. The sources that Now Assist cited to generate its response can be accessed by tapping on the Sources button below the summary.
If your request is unclear or ambiguous, the agent will prompt you with clarifying questions to better understand your needs, ensuring accurate and helpful guidance.
Suggested actions
Suggested actions provide you with next steps you can take related to your Virtual Agent conversation. After completing a chat topic or request, these suggestions appear under a Here's what you can do next header. Selecting a suggested action initiates it directly in the same conversation, carrying over any relevant details such as your name.
For more information on configuration, see Now Assist in Virtual Agent system properties
Knowledge base citations
Virtual Agent generates its responses using your organization’s knowledge base articles. You can tap inline citations to view the ServiceNow knowledge articles that were used to generate the response.
External content connections citations
- Microsoft SharePoint
- Confluence
- Atlassian Jira Cloud
- Google Drive
- Microsoft Teams
- Predefined web sources
- ServiceNow documentation
- Slack
Sources display with icons that indicate the type of record type each source is, such as a table, PDF, incident report, and so on For more information about external content connections, see External Content Connectors.
Doc QnA
Doc QnA enables you to upload documents to your Virtual Agent conversation. Now Assist can then generate a summary or answer questions using the document you provided.
The assistant can analyze file formats including text and image files such as PDF, Word (.doc, .docx), JPEG, and PNG. The maximum file size of a file is 5 megabytes (MB).
To attach a file to your conversation, tap the plus icon (
) in your search bar.
ServiceNow AI Lens
ServiceNow AI Lens leverages generative AI to scan, extract, and interpret data from your mobile device.
When you start a new Virtual Agent chat, select Show all my options to view the option to open ServiceNow AI Lens. Now Assist then gives you the option to choose an existing image or open your camera app to take a new photo. Once an image is selected, Now Assist allows you to input additional directions for how the image should be analyzed.
For more information, see ServiceNow AI Lens for mobile.
Web search mode
Web search mode in Now Assist enables you to search the internet directly from within your chat, displaying external results rather than internal company information. Select the Start web search mode icon (
) to enter web search mode.
While active, all user queries are answered using internet search results, and a banner shows that web search mode is enabled. The identifying banner disappears once web search mode is ended. For additional information, see Using Now Assist web search on mobile.
Feedback and additional support
The chat experience is further enhanced by feedback mechanisms that invite you to rate the Virtual Agent responses with thumbs up or down icons. This feedback helps to continually improve the quality and relevance of the support provided.
If you find that your issue can’t be resolved through the Virtual Agent alone, the system is designed to offer further assistance by connecting you to a live support agent, allowing you to reset the conversation, or enabling you to create a formal incident report, depending on how your organization has configured the support environment.
Push notifications
When progress has been made on a request submitted via Virtual Agent, you’ll receive a push notification. Tapping the notification opens the corresponding Virtual Agent chat in your mobile app.
People citations
You can find information about people in your organization if you have Knowledge Graph activated. The system displays up to three possible matches, with inline citations and a Sources section for more details. Selecting a person's name takes you to their user profile, while selecting the numbered citation shows a popover with details like manager, location, email, teams, phone, and shared files.
Additional resources
For more detailed information on all of standard chat’s specific skills, see Enhanced chat.
For information on configuring Virtual Agent, see Configuring assistants overview.