Released 2026-08-17
Every conversation in the inbox looked the same, whether the AI was answering it, nobody had picked it up yet, or a colleague was already replying. Now it says which. And when a chat needs a person, you can hand it over without having to take it yourself.
Highlights
See who's handling each chat
Every row in the inbox now carries a label: AI while the bot is answering, Waiting for human once a chat has been queued for your team, or the name of whoever took it over — You, if it's yours.
The preview line used to be prefixed with the AI agent's name on every conversation, including ones a person had been handling for an hour. It now shows whoever actually sent the last message.
Hand a chat to your team
When the AI is heading the wrong way, the only way to stop it used to be taking the chat over yourself — which put it on your plate whether or not you were the right person for it.
There's now a Hand to my team button, in the chat and in the details panel. It takes the AI out of that conversation and puts it back in the queue for whoever is free. The visitor is told someone will be with them, and the row flips to Waiting for human straight away.
Turn the AI off for an agent
A new Let AI Answer setting on the agent's Instructions tab. Switch it off and that agent never answers with AI at all — every chat goes straight to your inbox for a person to reply to, from the visitor's first message.
It is not a transfer, and it doesn't behave like one. There's no "I'm connecting you to a teammate" message and no handoff form, because there was never a bot in the conversation to hand it on. The visitor gets a short acknowledgement and your team gets the usual new-chat notification.
Existing agents are unaffected — the setting is on by default, so nothing changes unless you turn it off.
A widget that doesn't pretend
Two things the chat widget was claiming without evidence.
- The typing dots appeared whenever a visitor sent a message, on the assumption a reply was on its way. If nothing was coming — the AI switched off, a person already handling the chat, a conversation waiting in the queue — they spun forever. They now appear only while a reply is genuinely being written, and stop if the connection drops.
- "Online · replies instantly" was shown at all times, including at 3am with everyone logged off, and on agents whose AI never answers. When a person has to reply, the header now follows your business hours: usually replies in a few minutes while you're open, we'll reply when we're back when you're not. While the AI is answering it still says instantly, because it is.
Business hours come from your organisation settings.