Creating your first action on Google

Before we create an Action on Google, let's try to understand what an Action is. You might have heard about the Google Assistant, which is essentially comparable to Siri or Cortana. It is built around the concept of the virtual assistant, a piece of software that is capable of performing tasks for users based upon their direction, either in the form of text or voice. 

Each task that the Google Assistant can perform is called an Action. Thus, tasks that are performed when the user makes requests similar to "show me the shopping list" or "make a call to Sam" are actions in which a function, say, showShoppingList() or makeCall(Sam), is executed with the appropriate arguments attached to it.

The Actions on Google platform make it possible for us to create chatbots that act as an Action on the Google Assistant. Once...