Taking over a conversation from the bot
Taking over means that a person, rather than the bot, answers the customer in one conversation. While your team holds it, the bot does not answer new customer messages there. You can return it yourself or let an inactivity timer return it.
How it works
Section titled “How it works”Start with the suggested workflow: let the bot answer and use a directive in the internal channel or connected team channel for case decisions. Take over when you want to reply personally. Use the Coach for reviewed, lasting improvements and Experts for specialist information without taking over.
Take over, guide the bot, or pause it?
Section titled “Take over, guide the bot, or pause it?”These actions solve different problems:
| What you want | What to use | Who answers the customer? |
|---|---|---|
| Give the bot information or instructions about this conversation | A directive in the internal channel | The bot remains the responder. Your private message is not itself a direct customer reply. |
| Write the customer reply yourself | Take over in the Inbox | Your team. Automatic bot replies stop in this conversation. |
| Stop bot replies to this customer for a chosen period | Time out… | The bot stays quiet. Your team can still reply. See timeouts and abuse protection. |
| Change a lasting rule or fact for future conversations | Review and approve the relevant suggestion in the Coach | This changes the approved knowledge or behavior, not who holds this conversation. See teaching and learning and the Handbook. |
A request for team help is not the same as taking over. omotto can keep helping while the team supplies an answer privately. For when the team is involved, team availability and reminder settings, see Support Team.
Where to find it
Section titled “Where to find it”Conversation controls: open a conversation in the Inbox and use the handling pill at the top. Return-timer settings: Handbook → When … needs the team → Automatic return.
Set it up
Section titled “Set it up”Take over and send a direct reply
Section titled “Take over and send a direct reply”If automatic replies are off because the business is not live, Bot on this line is off, or the usage cap has been reached, authorized staff can type and send directly in an already-enabled message box. No Take over action is shown in that state. Channel sending restrictions still apply.
When the bot is handling the conversation with automatic replies on:
- Open the conversation.
- Click the handling pill at the top of the conversation. It identifies the current responder, for example {bot name} is handling. On a small screen it may show an icon rather than the full name.
- Choose Take over.
- If a confirmation appears, choose Take over to write directly to the customer, or Open Internal channel to tell the bot what to do instead.
- Type your reply in the customer message box, whose placeholder now reads Message customer.
- Click Send.
The confirmation appears by default while the bot can reply and you have permission to guide it in the Internal channel. To turn it off for yourself, tick Don’t show this again and confirm with Take over. Opening the Internal channel or closing the dialog does not save that choice. This preference affects only you.
When the bot is handling the conversation, the message box offers instruct me, which opens the Internal channel so you can tell the bot what to do, and take over to reply yourself. If you cannot guide the bot, only take over appears.
After takeover, the handling pill identifies the person handling the conversation. The customer receives your reply as a normal message from the business. Taking over and handing back create notes for your team in the conversation, not announcements sent to the customer.
Use the customer message box for words you want to send directly. Use the internal channel for instructions intended for the bot or the team.
Taking over does not remove a channel’s sending restrictions. If the message box requires an approved WhatsApp template, use that route. If it says the channel is disconnected or you cannot reply, resolve that restriction before sending.
Keep the conversation until you hand it back
Section titled “Keep the conversation until you hand it back”Use this for a long discussion or when you will return to the customer later yourself.
- Open the handling pill while your team holds a timed conversation.
- Choose Keep until I hand back.
The countdown stops. The status becomes Held until handed back. The bot stays quiet until control is returned. New customer messages and human replies, including supported replies from the channel’s own app, do not restart a countdown on a conversation held this way.
If the conversation is already held without a timer, Keep until I hand back is not offered again.
Hand back to the bot yourself
Section titled “Hand back to the bot yourself”- Finish any customer reply you still need to send.
- Open the handling pill.
- Choose Hand back to {bot name}.
This returns control immediately. It does not automatically answer a backlog of customer messages received during your takeover. The bot can answer the next new customer message, provided bot replies are enabled and the customer is not paused.
Handback does resume a saved answer the bot was waiting to pass on from the team. If the WhatsApp conversation window is closed, the bot can first send the configured approved WhatsApp template inviting the customer to reply. The answer follows when the customer replies. If bot replies are disabled, the answer stays pending.
Answering a team request during takeover
Section titled “Answering a team request during takeover”If you hold the conversation and answer the bot’s request through the internal channel, an answer owed to the customer can return control to the bot so it can pass the answer on. A uniquely linked Telegram identity can identify you too. Another teammate’s answer, an unlinked Telegram sender, or a Slack sender leaves your takeover in place. The same rule applies to approval decisions and directives routed through the bot. The team thread says that the answer is held, names the person who took over, and explains that it will be sent when takeover ends. If no person is assigned, it refers to a teammate. Optional information that the customer is not owed does not itself end takeover.
Settings
Section titled “Settings”In the automatic-return section, these settings control return from a person to the bot, not how quickly omotto asks the team for help.
| Setting exactly as shown | What it controls | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Human control is inactive for | Inactivity duration, in minutes, for takeovers and replies in the Inbox. | 5 minutes |
| Return conversations after the human in the WhatsApp Business app is inactive for (minutes) | The separate duration after supported replies from the WhatsApp Business app. Appears when that connection supports app replies. | 15 minutes |
| Return conversations after the human in the Instagram app is inactive for (minutes) | The same separate app-reply duration, labelled for Instagram when that is the supported app. | 15 minutes |
| Return conversations after the human in the WhatsApp Business or Instagram app is inactive for (minutes) | One shared app-reply duration when both supported apps are connected. This replaces the two app-specific labels; it is not a third timer. | 15 minutes |
0 = never return automatically. A takeover using a timer set to 0 stays with the team until control is returned. This does not disable separate reminders for an open team request. See Support Team settings for reminder controls and Handback guidance, including different guidance during and outside team hours.
Changes save automatically. Wait for saving to finish before leaving. Changing a timer does not immediately replace an existing conversation’s countdown. A timed conversation uses the current setting when a human reply or a first unanswered customer message restarts it. A conversation already held without a timer stays held until control is returned.
What happens when…
Section titled “What happens when…”How the inactivity timer works
Section titled “How the inactivity timer works”For a takeover in the Inbox, the default duration is 5 minutes. The countdown starts when you take over, not only after you stop typing or leave the page.
The timer restarts in these cases:
- You send a reply to the customer.
- The first unanswered customer message arrives while your team holds the conversation. It starts a fresh period in which your team can answer.
More customer messages in that same unanswered stretch do not keep extending the timer. Once your team replies, a later customer message can start a new waiting period.
For example, with a 5-minute timer and no unanswered customer message when you take over: you take over at 10:00, and the timer initially ends at 10:05. The customer writes at 10:02, starting a wait until 10:07. Further messages at 10:03 and 10:04 do not push it later. If you reply at 10:06, the timer restarts until 10:11.
If the customer was already waiting for an answer at 10:00, that waiting state carries into the takeover. Another message at 10:02 does not restart the timer. Control can return at 10:05 unless your team replies or chooses to keep the conversation.
Simply keeping the conversation open is not a way to keep control. The pill shows the remaining time; open it for the status The bot resumes in ….
If the bot cannot reply, the status reads Your control ends in …. Returning control does not turn on bot replies or remove a pause or channel restriction.
Before the conversation returns
Section titled “Before the conversation returns”When a customer is waiting and the bot can reply, the person holding the conversation receives one notification shortly before automatic return. Everyone viewing the conversation sees Returns to {bot name} in m:ss, with the same countdown as the handling pill.
- A timeout longer than 5 minutes warns 5 minutes before return.
- A timeout of 2–5 minutes warns 1 minute before return.
- A timeout of 1 minute, or a conversation held without a timer, has no warning.
If you have takeover permission, choose an action in the notice:
- Choose Extend {minutes} min to restart one full timeout. The customer remains marked as waiting.
- Choose Keep until I hand back to remove the timer until you return control yourself.
- Choose Hand back now to return control immediately.
Opening your warning notification counts as seeing it. So does interacting inside the conversation while the notice is visible, if you are the person holding it. Leaving a tab open alone does not count. A teammate viewing the notice does not acknowledge it for you. If the bot cannot reply, neither this notice nor the warning notification appears.
What happens when the timer expires?
Section titled “What happens when the timer expires?”| Situation at expiry | What happens |
|---|---|
| A customer message is still unanswered | omotto returns control to the bot and can resume it once to address the waiting customer. The bot first reviews whether team help is still needed. If that need is resolved, no team alert is sent. If you acknowledged the warning, the need stays open without another initial team alert. Otherwise the team receives one alert after the review, or after five minutes if the review does not finish. Open needs still receive normal reminders. This is not a guarantee that a message can be sent regardless of pauses or channel restrictions. |
| Nobody is waiting for an answer | Control returns to the bot. Expiry alone does not create a new customer message. |
| The bot is off, not live, or paused for the customer | Expiry does not override that block or turn bot replies on. Your team still needs to handle the waiting customer. |
Automatic return is different from the deliberate Hand back to {bot name} action: automatic expiry can continue a waiting customer’s conversation; deliberate handback does not automatically answer old messages.
An approval record contains more detail than the bot repeats
Section titled “An approval record contains more detail than the bot repeats”A staff approval card is not a customer reply. For a shipping-address correction, the team can review the full proposed address on that card, while the bot’s action result and approval history contain only the named corrections and that the rest was kept. Handing the conversation back does not turn the staff card into a full-address message to the customer.
For a shipping correction, if the bot-facing approval summary is unavailable, the bot is pointed to the staff approval card. That notice does not say the action succeeded or was undone. New shipping action notes already contain only the named corrections and keep that limited wording if their approval record is later removed. Check the action’s result and the store before telling the customer what happened or trying again.
Replies from WhatsApp Business or Instagram
Section titled “Replies from WhatsApp Business or Instagram”For a supported connection, a reply sent from the WhatsApp Business or Instagram app can also put the conversation under human control in omotto. You do not have to click Take over first in the Inbox. Each app reply renews control using the app-reply timer, whose default is 15 minutes.
omotto supports WhatsApp Business app Coexistence: using the app alongside omotto on the same number. The connection must share app replies for this control transfer to work. The app-reply setting is hidden when none of your connections support it. See connecting WhatsApp and connecting Instagram.
We strongly recommend using a directive in the internal channel or connected Telegram/Slack team channel for routine bot work instead of manually replying in WhatsApp Business. This keeps the bot autonomous and able to carry the work forward according to your decision, subject to available capabilities and required approvals. Use a direct app reply when you mean to answer the customer yourself, not merely to guide the bot. See the suggested workflow.
If you then reply from omotto’s Inbox, the Inbox timer applies. A later supported app reply uses the app timer again. A conversation already held with Keep until I hand back, or held because its timer was 0, stays held even when you switch between the Inbox and the app.
Notifications while a person is handling the conversation
Section titled “Notifications while a person is handling the conversation”By default, a new customer message in a human-held conversation notifies the assigned person. If there is no assigned person, the notification goes to people who can answer conversations. Workspace routing and personal notification preferences can change who receives it and how.
- omotto sends one arrival notification per unanswered stretch, not one per customer message.
- After a staff reply is successfully sent, the next customer message can trigger a new notification. A queued or failed reply is not enough.
- If any team member is actively viewing that conversation when the first message arrives, this arrival notification is suppressed. Closing the screen afterward does not trigger a delayed notification for that same stretch.
- The messages still appear in the Inbox, even when no notification is sent.
This arrival notification is separate from the return warning and from reminders about open team requests. There is no separate after-the-fact notification to the former holder just because the timer expired.
Troubleshooting
Section titled “Troubleshooting”- No Take over action while automatic replies are off? This is expected when the business is not live, Bot on this line is off, or the usage cap has been reached. If the message box is already enabled, type and send directly.
- An expected Take over or Hand back action is missing? You need permission to take over and answer conversations. Viewing the Inbox alone is not enough. Ask the workspace owner to check your permissions. Archived imported conversations are read-only.
- No Keep until I hand back action? It is only offered while the conversation is held by a person and still has a countdown.
- The bot is still quiet after handback? Check whether bot replies are enabled for the business and the particular line. Also check for a customer pause or timeout. Handback does not cancel either one.
- The customer asks for the bot while you hold the conversation? Their message does not by itself take control away from your team. Hand it back when you are ready.
- A control fails or the displayed state looks out of date? Reload the conversation and check who is handling it before sending again. If the problem persists, contact support.