The Live Chat inbox
What the Live Chat inbox is for
When the bot escalates (or an agent claims an open conversation), it lands in the Live Chat inbox. From here your team takes over. One unified interface for every channel.
Three core uses:
- Real-time handoff from the bot. Bot escalates, an agent picks it up, and the customer keeps chatting through their original channel.
- Manual reply during outage moments. Bot is paused (maintenance, your call) and your team handles replies manually.
- Proactive outreach. Open a conversation with a customer who didn't initiate, e.g., responding to a webhook event.
Available on Growth and above. Growth+
What you see in the inbox
The inbox opens filtered to Escalated: conversations handed to a person. To see every conversation, including the ones your AI answered on its own, pick All statuses in the status filter. Conversations are sorted by priority, then most-recent activity. Each row carries:
- Customer email or anonymous ID.
- Channel icon (widget, WhatsApp, Slack, etc.).
- Status badge (Open, Escalated, Claimed, Snoozed).
- Last message preview truncated to about 80 characters.
- Tags as colored chips.
- SLA state if a policy applies.
- Assigned agent if claimed.
Click any row to open the conversation in full view.
Claim flow
Two paths to claim:
- Click Claim in the conversation header. Conversation moves from open or escalated to claimed. Your name shows in the header.
- Bulk claim. Multi-select multiple conversations, then apply Claim. Useful for assigning yourself a batch of similar conversations.
Once claimed:
- Bot stops auto-responding.
- Your replies flow back through the customer's original channel.
- Other team members see your name as the assignee; they avoid stepping on the conversation.
To release a claimed conversation, click Release in the header. Conversation returns to the open pool.
Reply UX
The reply composer supports:
- Plain text typed into the composer.
- Markdown formatting (bold, italic, lists, code blocks).
- Canned responses via the slash menu (
/welcome,/refund-policy, etc.). - File attachments: up to 4 images (PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF, up to 5 MB each) or PDFs (up to 20 MB each).
- Internal notes as agent-only annotations (toggle the Note mode).
Send with Cmd/Ctrl+Enter. The reply is sent to the customer's channel straight away.
Delivery status
Rolling out; not yet switched on for every workspace. Each reply you send shows, under the bubble, whether it reached the customer:
- Sending while it goes out, or Scheduled for a reply you scheduled for later.
- Sent once the channel accepted it. On WhatsApp it moves to Delivered and then Read when the customer's phone reports it.
- Not delivered, with the reason in plain words: for example, the channel connection expired, or the customer has opted out. When sending again can help, a Retry button sends the same reply once more. Retry is not offered when it can't work, such as for an opted-out customer or a closed WhatsApp reply window.
- Delivery not confirmed when the channel didn't answer in time, so the reply may or may not have arrived. Send again asks you to confirm first, because the customer could get it twice. This applies to scheduled replies too: a scheduled reply whose delivery isn't confirmed is not sent again on its own; it waits for you to choose Send again.
- Cancelled, not sent for a scheduled reply that was cancelled before its time.
The status stays on the reply, so a teammate who opens the conversation later sees it too. A cancelled or failed scheduled reply is never shown to the customer.
Above the reply box, a line tells you where a public reply will go before you send it, such as Reply goes to WhatsApp · +1 555 0100. It names the channel, plus the phone number on WhatsApp and SMS or the customer's name on other messaging channels. On the website chat and on email it names only the channel. It isn't shown on the internal-note tab, or when the reply box already says the reply will go by email or can't reach the customer.
Resolving with scheduled replies
Rolling out; not yet switched on for every workspace. If a conversation still has replies scheduled for later when you resolve or close it, AskVault asks first: "This conversation has 2 scheduled replies. Cancel them?"
- Yes, cancel them resolves the conversation and cancels the replies. They stay in the thread marked Cancelled, not sent, and the customer never receives them.
- No, keep them resolves the conversation and the replies still send at their scheduled time.
- Closing the question (Esc or the close button) leaves the conversation open.
Resolving several conversations at once asks once, with the total. Conversations closed automatically (by an automation rule, after a quiet period, or when the customer confirms their question was answered) keep their scheduled replies.
API callers pass scheduled_replies: "cancel" or "keep" (on POST .../resolve as a query
parameter). Without it, a resolve that would leave scheduled replies behind returns 409 with
{"code": "scheduled_replies_pending", "count": N} and changes nothing.
Draft with AI
Open a ticket and press the Draft with AI pen icon in the composer. AskVault searches your indexed content for the customer's last question and writes a short reply from what it finds, then drops it into the composer for you to edit.
Two things it deliberately does not do:
- It never sends. The draft is text in your composer; nothing leaves until you press Send.
- It never guesses. If nothing in your content answers the question, you get a short note saying so and an empty composer: not a plausible-sounding answer. When it does draft, a banner above the composer names the sources it used so you can check them before sending.
Each draft counts as one AI assist against your plan's allowance, the same as Generate AI reply.
Custom ticket fields
Subject and description come with every ticket. If your team needs more. An order number, a refund amount, how urgent it is. A workspace admin can add their own from the inbox rail (Custom ticket fields).
Each field has a label, a type, and an optional "required" mark:
| Type | What the agent sees |
|---|---|
| Text | A single-line box |
| Number | A number box; anything that isn't a number is rejected |
| Dropdown | A list you define; only your options can be chosen |
Up to 30 fields per workspace. The field's key is generated from its label the first time you save and then stays fixed, because renaming it would orphan the values already stored against it.
Agents fill the fields in on the right-hand Ticket fields card. Values save as you tab out of the box, and only the field you changed is written: two agents editing different fields on the same ticket won't overwrite each other.
Removing a field hides its values, it does not delete your data. Add the field back and the values reappear.
Channel-specific behavior
Replies typed in the inbox reach the customer on these channels:
- Web widget. Real-time. The customer sees your reply in the chat window.
- WhatsApp. The customer sees the reply in WhatsApp. WhatsApp only accepts replies within 24 hours of the customer's last message, and a reply longer than WhatsApp allows (1,600 characters on a Twilio number, 4,096 on a Meta number) is cut off.
- Telegram. The customer sees the reply in Telegram. Telegram messages are limited to 4,096 characters.
- Messenger and Instagram (not available yet). When these channels launch, replies from the inbox will reach the customer there.
- Intercom. The reply is posted to the Intercom conversation.
On Slack, Discord, SMS, email, voice, the API and your shared chat page, replies sent from the inbox can't reach the customer yet. The reply is saved to the conversation, and the inbox shows "Saved, but not delivered" after you send it. Reply to those customers in the channel itself, and use an internal note to keep your team posted. When the new reply checks are switched on for your workspace, the inbox tells you this before you type: the reply box opens on internal notes, Take over says replies won't reach the customer, and a character counter warns when WhatsApp or Telegram would cut a long reply off.
Replying by email instead
When the email reply option is switched on for your workspace, a reply on Slack, Discord, SMS, email or your shared chat page goes to the customer by email if your workspace already has their address (from their contact record, a lead form they filled in, or the email they wrote from). The reply box tells you before you type: "Reply will be sent by email to j***@x.com".
- If you've connected a mailbox under Channels → Email, the reply is sent from that mailbox under your workspace's name. On an email conversation it stays in the same thread, and the customer's answer comes back into the same conversation. On other channels, their answer arrives in your connected mailbox as a new email conversation.
- If you haven't, the reply is sent under your workspace's name from our mail service. Replies to that address aren't read, so the email asks the customer to continue on the channel they used.
- If your workspace doesn't have the customer's email, the notice stays and offers Ask for email, which copies a short message you can paste in the customer's channel.
- On your shared chat page, a customer who sent a message in the last 10 minutes is treated as still on the page: they see your reply there, so it isn't also emailed.
- Customers who unsubscribed are never emailed, internal notes are never sent, and the inbox limits how many email replies a conversation can send in an hour.
Filters and saved views
The inbox supports filtering by:
- Status. Open, claimed, escalated, snoozed, resolved, archived.
- Channel. Filter to a single channel.
- Tags. Single tag or AND/OR combinations.
- Assignee. "Me", a specific agent, or unassigned.
- SLA state. In-compliance, at-risk, breached.
- Date range. Last 24 hours, last 7 days, custom.
Save filter combinations as saved views. Useful for specialized queues (Billing team's view, At-risk customers view).
Sending files to the customer
Once it is on, files in a public reply go to the customer on their channel. Each channel has its own limits, and the composer tells you before you send if a file won't go:
| Channel | Images | PDFs | File with no text |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chat widget | PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF | Yes | Yes |
| PNG, JPEG (up to 5 MB) | Yes (up to 16 MB with a Twilio number) | Yes | |
| Telegram | PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP | Yes | Yes |
| Messenger (not available yet) | PNG, JPEG, GIF | Yes | Add a message |
| Instagram (not available yet) | PNG, JPEG | Yes | Add a message |
Messenger and Instagram are not available yet. The last two rows are the limits planned for when they launch.
Other channels (Intercom, email, SMS, Slack, Discord, voice) can't carry files from the Inbox yet, and a reply with a file is never sent by email instead. If a file can't be sent, nothing is sent, so the customer never gets half a reply. Remove the file, or keep it in an internal note for your team. Links to your files are private and stop working after a short time.
Real-time updates
The inbox auto-refreshes every 10 seconds. Three update modes:
- Auto-refresh (default). Updates land in the view as they happen. Unread badges increment in real time.
- Manual refresh. Click refresh to pull latest. Useful for high-volume views where auto-shifting feels jumpy.
- Notifications. AI handoffs create an in-app notification for the workspace owner. For Slack or email alerts on new escalations, subscribe a webhook to
conversation.escalatedon the Webhooks page.
There is no refresh-mode or notification setting for the inbox today.
Multi-agent coordination
For teams with multiple agents on the inbox:
- Assignment shows in real-time. Two agents looking at the same view see each other's claims.
- Conflict detection. If two agents try to claim the same conversation within 1 second of each other, the second gets a notification and the first wins.
- Typing indicators between agents. If your teammate is composing a reply, you see "Sarah is typing" in the conversation view.
- Internal mentions. @-mention teammates in internal notes to pull them in.
Productivity features
A few features that compound over a day of inbox handling:
- Keyboard shortcuts.
JandKto navigate,Rto reply,Nfor note,Tto tag,Sto snooze,Cmd/Ctrl+Enterto send. - Quick claim. Hover a conversation row, click the Claim button without opening.
- Bulk actions. Multi-select with Shift+click, apply tags, resolutions, or snoozes to all.
- Canned responses. Slash menu in the composer. Type
/to see your saved replies.
Limits
- Plan availability. Live Chat is on Growth and above.
- Off by default. Each workspace starts with live chat off, so the widget shows no Talk to a human option. Turn it on in Channels > Web widget with Let visitors talk to a human.
- Team member count. 4 seats on Growth, 10 on Business, unlimited on Enterprise.
- Conversation retention. 90 days on Growth, 365 days on Business and Enterprise.
Common pitfalls
Inbox feels overwhelming after switching to All statuses. Build a saved view for your specific role (e.g., "Billing escalations only") and pin it.
Replies sent to the wrong channel. Confirm the channel icon in the conversation header matches before composing. Auto-routing is reliable but worth double-checking on first-time channel use.
Two agents reply to the same conversation. Use the claim flow; whoever claims first owns the reply. The second agent sees the claim and skips.
Snooze forgotten. Snoozed conversations re-surface when timer expires. Track your snoozed pile with a saved view.
FAQ
Can I disable the bot per conversation?
Yes. Claim the conversation; bot stops auto-responding. Release to let the bot resume.
Can agents see canned responses for the wrong language?
There is no per-language filter for canned responses. Name them with a language suffix, such as refund-en and refund-es, so agents pick the right one.
Are there mobile apps?
Mobile-responsive web app today. Native iOS and Android apps on the roadmap.
Can I export the inbox as CSV?
Yes. Apply your filter, click Export. CSV includes columns plus conversation transcript links.
How are SLAs counted in the inbox?
SLA timers run during open and escalated states. Pause during snoozed and claimed. Reset at resolved. Visible in the SLA badge per conversation.