Using the Chat Inbox
The inbox is where your team works chat conversations. Open it from Inbox in your project's sidebar. Everyone on your account can use it, and any number of teammates can have it open at once. Everything updates live.
The layout
| Area | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Header | Your status (Available or Away), the light or dark switch (◐), Phone alerts, Enable alerts, Full screen, Reports and Messenger settings. Outside support hours, an Outside support hours pill shows when your team is back. |
| Views (left) | Your conversation queues, each with a count, then Visitors online. Team lists which teammates are online. |
| Conversation list | The visitor's name (or email), the latest message, how long ago, and a badge showing who is handling it. A blue dot means unread visitor messages. Search matches name, email and message text. |
| Conversation | The full thread, a banner showing who is handling it, the action buttons and the reply box |
| Details (right) | Contact details, Verified, Unverified or Anonymous, Location (where the visitor is and their local time, worked out from their browser's time zone), Status (whether they're still on your website, see below), the current page (Last page once they've left) and the page they started on, Device (phone, tablet or computer, and the browser), IP address, custom attributes from your website, the AI's answer count and outcome, the conversation's team, and previous conversations. For a verified customer, All conversations → lists every conversation with them, open or closed and from any device, in the conversation list; ✕ on the bar above the list goes back. It isn't offered for unverified or anonymous visitors, since their conversations can't be tied to one person. Hidden on screens under 1400px wide. |
Is the visitor still there?
The Status row in the details panel uses the same rules as Visitors online, and updates as you watch:
- Online now (green): they have a page open and are using it.
- Idle 12m (grey): the page is open, but nobody has moved the mouse, typed, scrolled or tapped for 5 minutes or more.
- Offline · last seen 4:36 PM: they closed the page or switched away (about two minutes after), or left it idle for 30 minutes. Underneath it says whether your replies will be emailed to them.
Replying to someone who has left. If the visitor is offline and gave an email, your reply is emailed to them about a minute after you send it, with a link that reopens the chat. A few quick replies go out as one email. While they're still online, the email waits a few minutes (3 by default) in case they read it in the chat. See Chat Notifications and Teams.
Views
| View | Contains |
|---|---|
| Waiting for team | Conversations handed to your team, or where the visitor asked for a person, that nobody has taken yet. Keep this at zero. |
| Assigned to me | Conversations you own that aren't closed, including snoozed ones |
| AI live | Conversations the AI is handling right now |
| All open | Every open conversation |
| Snoozed | Conversations parked until later |
| Closed | Finished conversations |
| Visitors online | Everyone on your website right now, and the page they're on |
The browser tab title shows how many conversations are waiting, for example (3) Inbox.
Conversation badges
| Badge | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ✨ AI agent name (purple) | The AI is handling it |
| Waiting for team (red) | Handed to your team, and nobody has taken it yet |
| You or a teammate's name (green) | A person owns it |
| Snoozed (amber), Closed (grey) | Its status |
Visitors online
Visitors online lists everyone who has a page with the messenger open right now. It refreshes every 15 seconds. Each visitor shows:
- their name or email, or Anonymous visitor when your website hasn't said who they are, with ✓ when they're verified. A name with no sign-in or email behind it, such as one from a chat link, reads rob (Anonymous), here and in the conversation list;
- the page they're on, with its title and address;
- a green dot while they're active, or a grey dot and idle 12m when nobody has moved the mouse, typed, scrolled or tapped on the page for 5 minutes;
- whether they're chatting and who with (the AI, the queue or a teammate), or Not chatting;
- a phone, tablet or computer icon and their browser, for example Safari on iOS;
- their country, for example 🇺🇸 United States, worked out from their browser's time zone. Their local time is in the Location row of the details panel;
- how long they've been on the current page, as a running clock in green, for example 13:10 (past a day, 1d 3h). The clock restarts when they come back to a tab they'd left for 30 minutes or more, so it times this visit, not when the tab was first opened.
Search filters by name, email or page. A visitor appears while a page is open in a visible browser tab. Someone who closes the tab or switches away drops off within about two minutes. A page left open with nobody using it drops off after 30 minutes idle, so a tab forgotten on an unlocked screen doesn't look like someone on your website. Any activity brings them straight back.
Starting a conversation
- Click a visitor who isn't chatting.
- Write an opening message. The suggestion in the box is based on the page they're on, and is sent if you leave the box empty.
- Click Start chat or press Enter.
The conversation is assigned to you, and the AI stays out of it. What the visitor sees:
- On a computer: the messenger opens on your message.
- On a phone: your message appears as a bubble above the launcher, so it doesn't take over the screen.
- Already in a conversation: an unread badge, instead of an interruption.
- Left before it arrived: if their email is known, your message is emailed to them about a minute later.
Clicking a visitor who is already chatting opens that conversation instead. No new-chat Slack or email alert is sent for conversations your team starts.
Your status and alerts
- Available or Away. When you're Available with the inbox open, visitors see your team as online, and handoffs alert you. Close the tab and you stop counting as online straight away.
- Idle means Away. After 15 minutes with no mouse, keyboard or touch in any inbox tab, you're switched to Away (idle), so a forgotten tab doesn't tell visitors someone is there. Move the mouse or press a key in an inbox tab and you're Available again. Choosing a status yourself cancels the automatic one.
- Being Available overrides support hours. If you're Available outside your support hours, visitors see your team as online and get the normal reply-time wording instead of "The team is away". See Chat Support Hours.
- Click Enable alerts once to allow browser notifications. You get a sound and a notification when a conversation is handed to your team while you're Available, and when a visitor writes in a conversation assigned to you while you're looking at something else. A toast in the bottom-right corner also announces handoffs; click it to open the conversation.
- Slack and email alerts go to the conversation's team. See Chat Notifications and Teams.
- Phone alerts sets up push notifications on your phone. See Using the Chat Inbox on Your Phone.
Your photo and the AI agent's logo
Go to Messenger settings, then Team members, and click Upload photo. Any image works: it's cropped to a square and resized for you. Anyone on the team can set or remove anyone's photo there. Without a photo, your initials are shown.
Your photo shows next to your replies in the messenger, in the conversation header once you've taken over, on the messenger's home screen while you're online, and in the inbox.
The AI agent is the first row of the same tab. Upload your logo or a character, and it replaces the ✨ badge wherever the AI answers, in the messenger and in the inbox.
Replying
- Reply goes to the visitor. Enter sends; Shift+Enter starts a new line. Replying to a conversation the AI is handling takes it over.
- Note is an internal note, shown in yellow. Visitors never see it, and writing one doesn't take the conversation over.
- Saved replies inserts a canned response.
{{first_name}}(or "there" if unknown),{{name}}and{{email}}are filled in automatically. Manage them in Messenger settings, then Saved replies. - Files and images: click 📎, paste a screenshot, or drop files on the reply box, up to 5 per message and 10 MB each. They go with your reply, or with a note. Files the visitor sends show in the thread: images inline (click for full size), other files as download cards. See Sending Files and Images in Chat.
- Draft with AI writes a reply from your articles, with links to the sources, into your reply box to edit. Nothing is sent until you send it. If your articles don't answer the question, it tells you so, which usually means an article is worth writing.
- Replies support light formatting:
**bold**,*italic*,`code`,- lists,1. steps, and links as[text](https://…)or plain web addresses. Lists can nest: indent a- detailunder a1. step, and the numbering carries on after it. - Drafts are kept for each conversation while you move between them, but not after you reload the page.
You can see what the visitor is typing before they send it. Teammates can see when you're writing a reply or a note, and the visitor sees "Your name is typing…" for replies only.
What to look for under AI messages
| Label | What it means |
|---|---|
| ⚠️ Couldn't find an answer | Your articles don't cover the question. After two in a row (or one, if your settings say so), the AI hands the conversation to your team. |
| Asked a clarifying question | The question was ambiguous, so the AI asked what the visitor meant |
| Answered from … | The knowledge source the AI answered from. See Chat Knowledge Sources. |
| Offered the follow-up form | The visitor was offered a short name-and-email form so your team can follow up. It's offered only when a person is needed: when the AI hands over and their email isn't known, when nobody has replied 5 minutes after a handoff made while your team was online ("Sorry for the wait…"), or under an answer to a buying question, once per conversation. Older conversations may show Asked for an email instead. |
| Rule: … | One of your question rules handled this message |
| ⚡ action name(…) · ✓ 200 · 310 ms | The AI called one of your actions. Click it to see what came back. Visitors never see this. |
| 🔒 Also used, not shown to the visitor | Articles from an internal knowledge source that the AI used without linking to them. See Chat Knowledge Sources. |
| Checked in after the visitor went quiet | The AI's short follow-up after an answer went unanswered |
When a visitor fills in the follow-up form, a note records it and their details appear in the details panel. Your team is alerted that they left their details. Under an answer to a buying question, sending the form hands the conversation to your team instead, so sales can follow up. The buying-question offer can be switched off with Offer a follow-up form when a visitor shows buying intent on the AI agent tab of Messenger settings.
For more on watching and stepping in, see Taking Over a Chat from the AI.
Managing conversations
| Action | What happens |
|---|---|
| Take over / Take it | You own the conversation, and the AI stops. See Taking Over a Chat from the AI. |
| Assign | Give it to a teammate, or choose Unassign (back to queue) to return it to Waiting for team. An internal note records the change. |
| Hand back to AI | The AI answers the visitor's next message |
| Snooze | Park it for 1 hour, 4 hours, until tomorrow, or next week. It returns early if the visitor writes. |
| Close | Finish it. The visitor is asked for a rating. If they write again, the AI answers first. |
| Reopen | Bring a closed or snoozed conversation back to open |
| Team | In the details panel: move the conversation to another team, so its later alerts go there |
Unread counts are shared by the team: when anyone opens a conversation, it's marked read for everyone.
Full screen, dark mode and the desktop app
Click Full screen to fill the current browser tab with the inbox. The project sidebar is hidden and the header moves into a slim bar at the top. Press Esc or click Exit full screen to leave. The inbox remembers your choice.
The ◐ button in the header chooses Auto (match system), Light or Dark. Auto follows your computer's or phone's setting. Your choice is remembered in that browser, and other open inbox tabs switch too. Only the inbox itself goes dark; in full screen, on phones and in the installed app, that's the whole screen.
You can install the inbox as an app on your computer with your browser's install option. The installed app always fills its window and shows only the inbox: there's no Full screen button, and Reports, Messenger settings and Phone alerts are hidden. To use the inbox on your phone, see Using the Chat Inbox on Your Phone.
See how your team is doing in Chat Reports: response times, each teammate's figures, and the hours that need cover. Its Speed tab lists Missed handoffs, conversations handed to your team that nobody replied to within an hour, with a link to each so you can follow up.