How To Integrate Drift with Google Sheets [API Tutorial]

Drift is a chat bot app like Intercom.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to connect the Drift API to Google Sheets in 5 steps:

Install the Apipheny Add-on
Create a Drift API App
Choose your Drift API Endpoint URL
Enter Drift API Request into Apipheny
Run the Drift API Endpoint Request

Step 1.) Install and open the Apipheny add-on for Google Sheets

Apipheny is a free API connector for Google Sheets. You can use Apipheny to connect your Google Sheets to API data sources, easily.

1.) Install Apipheny by opening the following link on desktop and then clicking the Install button in the Google Marketplace: https://apipheny.io/install

2.) After you’ve installed Apipheny, open a Google Sheet and then click on the Extensions dropdown in the menu at the top.

In the dropdown list you should see Apipheny. Click Apipheny then click Import API to open the Apipheny sidebar in your Google Sheet.

Tip: you can open a new Google Sheet by entering this URL in your browser: sheet.new

Step 2.) Create a Drift App

To get started with the Drift API, first log in to your Drift account. Then go to dev.drift.com and create a new app by clicking the Build Your App button under Your Apps:

Click "Build Your App" — Click “Build Your App”

On the create an app page, you can add information like name, description, and icon under the Display Information section:

Go to the bottom of the OAuth & Permissions page, add the redirect URL and give your application the scopes of access that it needs to perform its purpose:

Under the Activate Your App section, install your app to your Drift account. This will generate a special non-expiring access token. You can now authenticate your requests by including the header Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN>

After you get your Drift OAuth access token, copy and paste it somewhere safe because you’re going to need it later to authenticate your API requests.

Step 3.) Obtain a Drift Endpoint URL

In this section, we’ll show you how to browse the Drift API documentation to find a Drift API endpoint that retrieves the information you need. If you already know your Drift API URL, or you want to use the same example URL as us, just skip to Step 4.

To browse available endpoints, first open the Drift API documentation page: https://devdocs.drift.com/docs

The menu on the left contains a list of tutorials for the Drift API and a list of related APIs, each with its own endpoints:

An example endpoint is the Listing Conversations endpoint, from the Conversations and Messages API, which returns the conversations in your account:

https://driftapi.com/conversations/list

The documentation for this endpoint contains a short description of the endpoint’s purpose, the HTTP method used (GET), the request URL, a table describing the accepted parameters, and a few example requests:

Drift Listing Conversations API Endpoint Documentation

All API calls to the Drift API should be made to the https://driftapi.com/ base domain.

Drift API base domain/root URL:
https://driftapi.com/

Step 4.) Enter the Drift API Request Into Apipheny

To call the Drift API in your Google Sheets, go back to your Google Sheet and make sure that the Apipheny add-on is open on the “Import” tab. With the Import Tab open, enter these details into the add-on:

Method: At the top of the Apipheny sidebar, select the HTTP method (GET or POST) as required by your API endpoint. For this example, we are using the GET method.

API URL: In Step 3, we explained how you can find the Drift API endpoint that you need. Now copy the complete URL into the Apipheny add-on, where it says API URL Path (JSON / CSV), followed by any GET parameters required for your query.

For this example, we are using the Listing Users endpoint that returns a list of users in your organization. The corresponding URL for this endpoint is:

https://driftapi.com/users/list

In the Headers section in the Apipheny add-on, add 1 row with the following key and value:

Header:
Key:
Authorization
Value: Bearer your_token

Where your_token value is the token you obtained earlier, in Step 2. There should be a space between “Bearer” and your token.

Drift API request entered into the Apipheny add-on

Step 5.) Run the Drift API Endpoint Request

Lastly, click the Run button at the bottom of the Apipheny add-on and then your Drift API data will be imported into your Google Sheet, like so:

After making a successful request to the Drift API, try querying a different Drift API endpoint, or try using one of the more advanced features in the Apipheny add-on.