Hand off to a human

Sometimes a customer needs a person. This is the click-by-click for stepping into any live thread from the unified inbox: take the conversation over from the AI, reply as your team, and hand it back, with the bot muted for just that contact while you're on it. For the full inbox tour (filters, assignment, status), that reference page has the depth; this page is the hand-off habit.

What you'll build

A repeatable move you can make on any conversation in about five minutes: jump in when a customer wants a human, answer as yourself, and return the thread to the AI without the customer ever seeing the seam. You'll also learn how the agent hands off to you on its own.

Before you start

• At least one channel connected, with live conversations landing in the inbox. New here? Connect WhatsApp is the fastest.
• Your role needs the reply inbox permission to take over, reply, and hand back. View inbox alone only lets you read. Both are grantable per member, see Roles & permissions.
• Two things start a hand-off: you jump in, or the agent raises its own hand. This page covers both.

Take it over, reply, hand it back

1. Open the conversation. Click Inbox in the sidebar and pick a thread.

   Expected result: The thread opens with its full history and a live stream. While the AI owns it, the composer notes "[agent] is answering automatically".

2. Click Take over from AI.

Expected result: A Needs human badge appears, the banner reads "AI replies are paused, handed off to a human", and a toast confirms "You've taken over. AI replies are paused." The composer now reads "You're replying · AI Agent muted for this contact". That's the per-contact mute: the bot goes silent for this contact on this channel only.

You don't actually have to click first, your first reply implicitly takes the conversation over, so a bot answer can never race a human who's typing.

3. Reply as your team. Type your message (text or media) and send.

Expected result: It's delivered on the conversation's own channel, from the same agent identity, so the hand-off is invisible to the customer. The per-contact usage panel shows a Muted marker while you're on it.

4. Hand it back. When you're done, click Return to AI agent.

   Expected result: The Needs human badge and banner clear, a toast confirms "Returned to the AI agent.", and the bot resumes auto-replying on the thread.

When the agent hands off to you

The agent can raise its own hand and flip a thread to Needs human. It does this when the customer asks for a person, when its answer isn't well-grounded, or when it finds no answer. (A blocked topic makes the agent decline in-band rather than escalate; repeated-failure escalation is reserved for a future release.) When it does, your team gets a notification, and the thread shows under the Needs human filter chip. Pick it up exactly as above, then Return to AI agent when resolved.

Verify it works

• After Take over from AI, the Needs human badge and paused-replies banner appear.
• The composer reads "AI Agent muted for this contact" and usage shows Muted.
• Your reply reached the customer on their original channel.
• Return to AI agent clears the badge and the bot answers again.
• The take-over and hand-back show in the audit log (actor and refs only, never the message body).

Troubleshooting

• The bot still replied after I took over. Confirm the Needs human badge is showing. Mute is per-conversation, other threads keep auto-replying, which is expected.
• There's no Take over button / I can't reply. You have view inbox but not reply inbox. Ask an owner or admin to grant it, see Roles & permissions.
• A thread I never touched won't get a bot reply. It's probably escalated (Needs human), click Return to AI agent, or that channel's auto-reply or business hours is off. See Channel settings.
• I can't find escalated conversations. Click the Needs human filter chip and clear any Platform / Agent / Assigned-to filters.

What's next

• Unified inbox, filters, assignment, and status in full.
• Roles & permissions, who can see and work the inbox.
• Channel settings, auto-reply, greeting, and business hours that gate the AI.
• Audit log, the record of every take-over and hand-back.