send messages in google hangouts with node.js

Question

I have looked for a long time trying to find a package that allows sending and reading messages in node.js

I have found lots of guides on how to make bots in the G-Suite version of Hangouts, but I'm not a G-suite user and am looking to do it in the regular version.

I am aware of the Jaxbot hangouts-bot: https://github.com/jaxbot/hangouts-bot but this doesn't support sending and reading to group chats, and I'm looking for something that can.

I'm hoping the package can read/send messages in DMs and group chats, so leave an answer if you know of anything that can do it!

Thanks, privrax

Answer 1

I've used the HangupsJS package on npm to interact with Hangouts. https://npmjs.com/package/hangupsjs. Before installing, you will need to install the coffeescript package globally to install this package. Just use: npm install coffeescript -g. If installing on a Mac use the sudo prefix.

This is what my bot looked like:

const Hangups = require('hangupsjs');
global.client = new Hangups();

const credsfunc = async function() {
    return {
        auth: async function() {
            return process.env.TOKEN
        }
    }
}
client.on('chat_message', msg => {
    console.log(msg)
    if (msg.chat_message.message_content.segment[0].text == 'Hello') {
        client.sendchatmessage(msg.conversation_id.id, [[0, 'Hi!']]);
    }
});
client.connect(credsfunc).then(() => {
    console.log('Client logged in.');
});

To get the authorization token you will need to follow these instructions: https://github.com/tdryer/hangups/issues/260#issuecomment-246578670 and replace process.env.TOKEN with your OAuth token.

From here on, start your bot with node and then add them to a group chat. They should start to read and respond to messages.