Digital assistant extensibility to third party applications

A method for extending functionality provided by a digital assistant operating on a computing device, comprising:

• configuring a plurality of application extensions for interoperation with a respective plurality of associated applications that are accessible on the computing device, in which each application extension among the plurality respectively includes a unique event handler configured to handle events associated with one of user input, action, or behavior;
• receiving inputs to the digital assistant from a user of the computing device;
• using the digital assistant to develop context-awareness for the inputs by observing behaviors and actions associated with the user;
• associating events with the user inputs, user behaviors, and the user actions;
• identifying a first application based on the user inputs and the context-awareness;
• passing the events from the digital assistant to an event handler instantiated in an application extension that is associated with the first identified application;
• in response to receiving the events, invoking execution of the first application from an associated first application extension, wherein the executing first application interoperates with an associated first application database to obtain data that is responsive to the user inputs;
• identifying a second application based on the user inputs, the context-awareness, and the identified first application;
• passing the events from the digital assistant to an event handler instantiated in an application extension that is associated with the second identified application;
• in response to the event handler receiving the events, invoking execution of the second application from an associated second application extension, wherein the executing second application interoperates with an associated second application database to obtain data that is responsive to the user inputs;
• adding data obtained from the first application database and the second application database to a digital assistant database, the digital assistant database being configured to store data that is usable by the digital assistant;
• and
• operating the digital assistant on the computing device to interact with the digital assistant database to take actions or answer questions responsively to the input, action, or behavior.

One or more computer-readable storage media storing instructions which, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to:

• expose a digital assistant to a user of the computing device through a user interface (UI) supported on the computing device;
• configure a plurality of application extensions to enable user interactions with a respective plurality of applications that are available for execution on the computing device through the digital assistant UI, in which each application extension among the plurality respectively includes a unique event handler;
• observe user interactions with the digital assistant;
• map the observed user interactions with the digital assistant to the plurality of application extensions to identify respective applications for execution on the computing device;
• pass events for the observed user interactions with the digital assistant to respective event handlers in the mapped application extensions;
• operate programming contained in the mapped application extensions to provide application-specific context to the digital assistant;
• in response to receiving the events, use the mapped application extensions to invoke execution of the respective identified applications to receive data from application databases associated with the executing applications;
• and
• operate the digital assistant to respond to the observed user interactions using the received data and the application-specific context.