I do not know why I need a Helpshift app, what one is, or how to set one up – Unity

Symptoms:

What is an “app” in Helpshift?
Do I have to set up an app in Helpshift?
What happens if I do not set up any app in Helpshift?
Does every app in Helpshift integrate the Helpshift mobile SDK?
Does integrating the Helpshift mobile SDK add my app to Helpshift automatically?

Cause:

At Helpshift, we use the word “app” to mean two different but interrelated things.

The first kind of app is compiled software that runs on a mobile device. This kind is the very thing that most people mean when they use the word “app.” And, when we speak of Helpshift mobile SDK integrations, these compiled, mobile apps are the environment where such integrations take place.

The second kind of app is a container in Helpshift, which you can associate with certain configuration settings and customer service issues for the mobile app that it is bound to. Each container app represents and describes the configured support experience for one of your mobile apps.

A container app and one of your mobile apps are bound together to deliver the in-app customer support experience. Such binding involves an API key, an App ID, a domain, and an initialization code, all of which originate from the container app. And of course, binding also involves integrating the Helpshift mobile SDK into your mobile app.

Binding facilitates communication between:

your mobile app and your Helpshift server instance.
your in-app players and your customer service agents.
your in-app players and your customer service bots.

Container apps are an organizing principle for issue segmentation, as well as for your development of customer service workflows, metrics, and more. Without container apps, you cannot fully prepare or deploy automations. Nor can any of your compiled, mobile apps connect to your Helpshift server instance.

Resolution:

How to create a basic container app:

Log in to your Helpshift instance as its administrator.
On the Helpshift toolbar, click Settings ().
In the navigation pane, scroll to the APP SETTINGS area, and then click + ADD APP.
In the Add App dialog box, do the following:
1. Enter a name for your new container app.
2. To identify all of the platforms through which you plan to provide support, click each corresponding button in the button bar.
3. Do either or both of the following:
  1. When the container app should represent a mobile app that is, or will be, downloadable from the Apple App Store for iOS devices, enter its app profile URL in the iOS field.
  2. When the symbolic app should represent a mobile app that is, or will be, downloadable from Google Play Store (formerly the Android Market), enter its app profile URL in the Android field.
Click Add.

Your Helpshift server instance creates and saves a set of records for your new container app, and the Add App dialog box closes.

How to configure a container app:

Log in to your Helpshift instance as its administrator.
On the Helpshift toolbar, click Settings ().
In the navigation pane, scroll to the APP SETTINGS area, and then click the name of the container app that you plan to configure.

The App Settings page opens. In its Supported Platforms area, you see as many as four UI tiles that correspond to the five supported platforms that you chose among when you created the basic container app. (If you chose both iOS and Android, they share one UI tile.)

TIP

It’s not necessarily too late to change which platforms the app should support.

To add a platform, click + ADD PLATFORM, and then choose among the options in the Add Platform dialog box (When every available platform is already supported, this button is dimmed and not clickable).

To remove a platform, click the unlabeled Options (⋮) button in the upper right corner of the platform’s tile. Then, in the contextual menu, choose either Delete or Delete <platform>, depending on the platform type.

4. On the tile whose platform (or platforms) you plan to configure, click CONFIGURE.

Depending on your selected platform, the settings that we prompt you to configure include some combination of the following:
USER EXPERIENCE SETTINGS
- - supported languages
  - branding and appearance
  - greeting message
  - QuickSearch Bot
  - personalize conversation experience
  - customize Contact Us form
  - view previous conversations
  - user attachments

SUPPORT ACTIVITY SETTINGS

- - show agent typing indicator
  - audio notifications
  - push notifications
  - Apple Push Notification Service
  - Google (Firebase) cloud messaging
  - push notification message - iOS

PRIVACY AND ANONYMITY SETTINGS

- - anonymous issue filing
  - Identity Bot
  - user presence detection
  - user identity verification
  - user ID link
  - debug logs and breadcrumbs

QUALITY MEASUREMENT SETTINGS

- - Customer Satisfaction Survey (CSAT) Bot
  - customer satisfaction survey
  - resolution question
  - automated review requests
  - app review URL for iOS
  - app review URL for Android

Configure the settings according to your need.

5. Click SAVE & PUBLISH.

How to start binding your mobile app to your container app:

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

Create a basic container app to represent your compiled, mobile app.
Configure the container app.
Deploy the Helpshift SDK into your Unity game project.
Import into your Unity Project the Helpshift namespace for your mobile app’s platform OS (iOS or Android).

To prepare for eventually passing data between your mobile app and your Helpshift server instance, you must first gather the cross-authentication tokens to be shared.

Log in to your Helpshift instance as its administrator.
On the Helpshift toolbar, click Settings ().
At the top of the navigation pane, click SDKs (for Developers).
The Initializing Helpshift page opens.
From the Select App list, choose the container app that should pass data back-and-forth with your mobile app.
In the table whose title matches your mobile app’s platform OS (iOS or Android), find and copy each of the following tokens.
- - API_KEY — A 32-bit hash
  - DOMAIN — <your_instance>.helpshift.com
  - APP_ID — <your_instance>_platform_<numeric_string>-<hash>

To initialize Helpshift, you must add the three tokens to the implementation file for your app delegate, ideally at the top of application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions.

To learn about adding these tokens to your implementation file, and to learn about subsequent steps to complete the required binding between your container app and your mobile app, see the Helpshift for Unity mobile SDK documentation at https://developers.helpshift.com.

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