Live monitor and human handoff

Overview

Live monitor lets you watch visitor conversations as they happen and step in whenever a person should take over from the AI. When you take over, the AI stops replying and your messages go straight to the visitor's chat window. When you're done, you can hand the conversation back to the AI or end it.

Open it from Chat → Live monitor. The page is titled Live Monitoring. The header shows:

Live when real-time updates are connected. Otherwise it shows the connection status.
Active: the number of conversations currently open.

The list on the left includes conversations that are active or handed off. Each one shows:

The visitor's name, with an AI or Human badge showing who is replying.
A Frustrated or Angry badge when the visitor seems unhappy.
The latest message, the start time, the message count, and the time of the last activity.

A notification appears when a new conversation starts.

Steps

Watch a conversation

Go to Chat → Live monitor.
Use Search conversations... to find a visitor by name, email, or latest message.
Click a conversation. The right-hand panel shows the visitor's name, their email (if collected), the start time, and the workflow in use. New messages appear as they arrive.
The badge at the top right shows AI Active while the AI is replying, or Taken Over once a person has stepped in.

Take over from the AI

With the conversation open, type in the box at the bottom (Type a message to take over this conversation...).
Click Send or press Enter. Sending your first message takes over the conversation automatically.
The AI stops replying, and the badge changes to Taken Over. Keep chatting with the visitor from this panel.

You can also select an active conversation in Chat → Conversations and click Take over at the top of its details, then come back to Live monitor to reply.

Hand back or finish

Once you've taken over, two buttons appear below the message box:

Release to AI: gives the conversation back to the AI, which answers the visitor's next message.
End Conversation: closes the conversation and marks it as completed.

If you turned off Tell the visitor when I join in the AtomicX mobile app, taking over here doesn't show the visitor a "joined" message either.

You can do the same from your phone with the AtomicX app. The app also lets you whisper private guidance to the AI, leave a note for it when you hand back, teach the agent the answer you gave by adding it to its knowledge base, and have conversations that need a person assigned to whoever on your team is available. See AtomicX mobile app.

How handoff works in your workflow

When a conversation reaches a Handoff node in a workflow, the visitor sees your transfer message (for example, "Transferring you to a member of our team…") and the conversation is handed off straight away:

The workflow and the AI stop replying to the visitor.
The conversation shows the Human badge in the Live monitor list, and Taken Over when you open it.
It isn't assigned to anyone yet, so any team member can open it and reply directly. There's no need to take it over first.
If you use Slack with widget sync, the conversation's Slack thread switches to human mode too, so your team can also reply from Slack.

Conversations are handed off the same way, with the visitor message "Thanks for your message — someone from our team will get back to you.", when your plan's conversations for this month are used up or your plan doesn't include AI. If you click Release to AI on one of these, the next visitor message is handed back to your team. See Plans and subscription.

If nobody replies and there's no activity for 30 minutes after the handoff, the conversation is closed and marked Abandoned.

Handoff in other languages

Standard visitor-facing handoff notices follow the conversation's current language. Your own workflow transfer message is translated automatically when first needed; if that isn't possible, English is used. Your team's replies are sent exactly as written, and earlier transcript messages are not translated. Check Chat language in Chat → Conversations when deciding how to reply. See Chat languages and translations.

Tips

Keep Live monitor open in a browser tab during business hours so you see new conversations and handoffs straight away.
Reply to handed-off visitors promptly. After 30 minutes without activity, the conversation is marked Abandoned.
Watch for the Frustrated and Angry badges. They're a good sign that someone should step in.
Once a conversation is completed or closed, the message box is replaced by "This conversation is no longer active".
Everything you send is saved in the transcript, which you can review later in Chat → Conversations.