Using enhanced chat on mobile

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 5 minutes to read
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    Summary of Using enhanced chat on mobile

    Enhanced Chat on mobile delivers an AI-driven conversational support experience integrated within your organization’s mobile support portal or application. It enables seamless switching between multiple conversations, synthesized responses with inline citations, and access to knowledge articles and catalog items. This feature enhances user interaction with the Virtual Agent by combining powerful search and chat capabilities, improving issue resolution efficiency and user engagement on mobile devices.

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    Accessing Enhanced Chat

    Users can open Enhanced Chat by tapping the Now Assist icon on the mobile home page or by entering a request in the home page search bar, which can expand into a full-page chat interface if enabled by your organization. If full-page chat is not enabled, the search bar remains compact but still offers quick search and chat initiation.

    Key Features

    • Virtual Agent Chat: Accepts natural language queries, provides synthesized answers from multiple sources, suggests knowledge articles, and offers next steps. It supports multiple concurrent chats and conversation continuity.
    • Suggested Actions: After completing chat topics, suggested next steps appear for direct initiation within the conversation, carrying over relevant context such as user information.
    • Knowledge Base and External Citations: Responses include inline citations from your organization’s knowledge base and, if configured, external content sources such as SharePoint, Confluence, Jira Cloud, Google Drive, Microsoft Teams, Slack, and ServiceNow documentation. Icons indicate the type of source.
    • Doc QnA: Allows uploading of documents (PDF, Word, JPEG, PNG) up to 5 MB for the Virtual Agent to analyze, summarize, or answer questions based on the document content.
    • ServiceNow AI Lens: Enables image capture or selection on mobile devices to extract and interpret data using generative AI, further enhancing the Virtual Agent’s capabilities.
    • Web Search Mode: Provides internet search functionality within the chat, showing external results with a visual indicator when active.
    • Feedback Mechanism: Users can rate Virtual Agent responses with thumbs up or down to help improve support quality.
    • Escalation and Incident Reporting: If the Virtual Agent cannot resolve an issue, users can connect to a live support agent, reset conversations, or create incident reports based on organizational configuration.
    • Push Notifications: Notify users about progress on Virtual Agent requests, linking directly back to the relevant chat session on mobile.
    • People Citations: If Knowledge Graph is enabled, users can find organizational contact details with inline citations and quick access to user profiles and contact information.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    By leveraging Enhanced Chat on mobile, ServiceNow customers can provide their end-users with a highly interactive and efficient support experience anywhere. The integrated AI capabilities reduce resolution times by synthesizing information from multiple sources and guiding users with actionable next steps. Document upload and AI Lens expand the input modalities, while web search mode and external content connectors broaden the knowledge base accessible within the chat. Feedback and escalation options ensure continuous improvement and robust support coverage. The push notification and people citation features further enhance user engagement and organizational connectivity.

    Next Steps

    To maximize Enhanced Chat on mobile, customers should consider enabling full-page chat for a richer experience, configuring external content connections and Knowledge Graph as needed, and tailoring Virtual Agent system properties to align with their support workflows. Detailed configuration guidance is available in the Now Assist and Configuring Assistants documentation.

    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

    To begin using standard chat, open your organization's support portal or application on your mobile device. From here, you have two ways to open 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

    Figure 1. Enhanced chat
    request asking virtual agent about how to book travel

    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

    Figure 2. Suggested actions in enhanced chat
    suggestions to check leave balance, block calendar, and notify teammates

    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

    If external search sources have been configured by your organization, you can search through external content connections. This can include information from attachments and knowledge blocks, or from the following list of content connections:
    • 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

    Figure 3. Mobile Doc QnA
    Now Assist summary of an attached PDF

    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

    Figure 4. ServiceNow Lens for mobile
    now assist generating troubleshooting steps based on an image

    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

    Figure 5. Mobile web search mode
    Virtual Agent displaying internet search results

    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

    Figure 6. Virtual Agent push notifications
    Virtual Agent push notifications on a phone locked screen

    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

    Figure 7. People citations in standard chat
    User asking Now Assist for information on an employee named Alisa

    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.