Human Handover
Escalate live chats from your AI agent to a human operator in the dashboard Inbox.
Human Handover lets your agent pass a conversation to a real person when a visitor asks to speak to someone, is frustrated, or has a request the AI cannot resolve. The AI stops replying, your team is notified, and someone continues the chat from Dashboard → Inbox.
The feature is off by default for every agent.
Turning it on
- Open Dashboard → Agents → your agent → Actions.
- In the Human Handover section, turn the switch on.
- Optionally set a Handover message — shown to the visitor when the chat is escalated (for example: "Thanks! A team member will join shortly."). Leave empty to use the default.
- Click Save changes.
When handover is enabled, the AI will escalate live chats to your team instead of only suggesting the enquiry form. Visitors can still use Submit an enquiry if they prefer to leave their details.
How it works
- A visitor asks to talk to a person (or the AI recognizes they need help from your team).
- The visitor sees your handover message.
- The chat appears in Dashboard → Inbox with status Waiting.
- A team member clicks Take over, replies in the thread, then Resolve or Return to AI.
Keep the Inbox tab open while handling chats — new messages appear automatically every few seconds. Use Refresh if you want to check for updates right away.
Operator Inbox
Open Dashboard → Inbox from the sidebar. The nav item shows a badge with the number of chats waiting for someone on your team.
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Take over | Choose a display name, then join the chat — the visitor sees that name on your messages |
| Reply | Sends a message under your display name (also takes over the chat if it is still waiting) |
| Resolve | Marks the handover complete and lets the visitor know the chat is resolved |
| Return to AI | Hands the conversation back to the AI for future messages |
Team members with view-only access can see the Inbox but cannot take over or reply.
What visitors see
On your embed widget and hosted chat page, when someone from your team is handling the chat:
- After you take over, a banner appears: "You're now connected with our team" (not shown while the chat is still waiting for an operator)
- Your replies appear with the display name you chose when taking over (for example "Alex from Support"). If no name is set, visitors see Team member.
- Short status updates (for example "Alex from Support has joined the chat") appear in the thread
- The visitor can keep typing; their messages go to your team, not the AI
When you resolve the chat or return it to the AI, the banner goes away and the AI can reply again.
If nobody is available
There is no live "who is online" indicator yet. If nobody takes over right away:
- The visitor still sees your handover message
- Their messages are saved and waiting for when someone opens the Inbox
- They can still use Submit an enquiry to leave contact details via Leads
You can customize the message visitors see under Handover message on the Actions page.
Who can use the Inbox
Handover chats belong to your organization. Active team members can view the queue. Owners, admins, and members can take over and reply. Viewers can look but not respond.
Related pages
- Leads — enquiry form and lead management when handover is not used or as a fallback
- Conversations — past chat history per agent (read-only, not live operator chat)
- Settings — account and integration configuration