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Claim and reply

The claim model, what the visitor sees while they wait, and what happens to the AI once a human takes over.

A waiting conversation belongs to nobody until someone claims it. Claiming is how a team of agents avoids two people answering the same visitor.

Claiming

Open a waiting conversation and choose Claim. The conversation moves to human_handling, your name is attached, and the claim appears on every other open inbox at once — so a colleague sees it is taken before they start typing.

Any active member can claim, viewers included.

The AI goes quiet

While a human is handling the conversation, the AI does not reply. The visitor's messages are stored and pushed to you instead. There is no risk of the agent talking over you mid-conversation.

What the visitor sees

  1. 1
    They ask for a person. The widget shows a "connecting you to an agent…"

    state.

  2. 2
    Nobody claims within about 90 seconds. The widget says agents are busy and

    asks them to hang on, rather than going silent.

  3. 3
    You claim. The banner and each of your messages carry your name, so

    the visitor knows they are talking to a person.

The widget polls for your replies, so they appear within a second or two.

Replying

Type in the conversation and send. Two things speed this up:

Attachments

You can attach files or images to a reply — up to five per message. They are delivered on the website widget and on the email channel.

Every other channel — SMS, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, Slack, voice — shows "Attachments aren't supported on this channel." Send a link instead.

Assigning to a teammate

Assign hands a conversation to a specific person. The assignee is notified in the feed and by web push (if enabled), and it appears under their Assigned to me filter.

Assignment is an ownership hint: it never changes the conversation's status, and it is not the same as claiming. A thread can be assigned to someone and still be unclaimed.

Ending it

Either side can finish: you resolve the conversation, or the visitor ends the chat from the widget. Whichever happens, the other side sees it. See Statuses and resolve.

Where to go next

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