The Inbox is every WhatsApp conversation between your centre and its customers. Your AI bot answers automatically; you can step in whenever a human is needed.
When you'd use this
- A customer is chatting on WhatsApp and you want to read or join in.
- A conversation is waiting for a human reply.
Reading conversations
- Open Inbox → WhatsApp from the sidebar.
- Conversations are grouped: a "Waiting for reply" section (with a count) sits above "All conversations". All conversations shows the newest 100; press Show older conversations at the bottom for the next 100. Waiting for reply always lists every chat waiting, however old. It shows chats the bot has escalated to your team (red dot) and taken-over chats where the customer has the last word and nobody has answered yet (amber dot). Opening a taken-over chat doesn't take it out of Waiting; replying (in DiveOps or from the WhatsApp Business app on a phone) or pressing No reply needed does. The bell shows the same list, to staff who can open the inbox (anyone without inbox access doesn't see it). Use the search box to find a person. Pressing No reply needed on an alert in the notification bell clears it for everyone at your centre (not just your screen); it comes back if that customer writes again or is handed to a human again. The No reply needed button only shows to staff who can edit customers.
- Unread conversations stand out. Any chat with a customer message you haven't opened yet shows in bold with a blue time and a blue dot, even if the bot has already replied to it, so nothing a customer says can slip past you. Opening a conversation marks it read (the bold and dot clear); if the customer messages again, it goes bold again. Read state is shared across your team, so once one person opens a chat it shows as read for everyone. You can switch the highlighting off in Inbox settings (the gear icon at the top of the conversation list).
- Mark as unread. Read a message on the go but can't deal with it yet? Open the chat and press the envelope icon (top-right): the chat closes and goes back to bold so it isn't forgotten. You can also right-click any conversation in the list (or use the ⋯ button that appears on the row) to mark it unread or read, or to flag it "Needs a reply" without opening it. "Needs a reply" always puts the chat in the red Waiting for reply section; if the bot is still handling that chat, flagging it takes the chat over to your team first (which pauses the bot for that customer).
- No reply needed. Some chats in Waiting for reply don't need an answer (a "Thanks!", or a chat whose 24-hour WhatsApp window has closed so you can't reply anyway). Right-click the conversation (or use the ⋯ button, or the ⋯ in the chat on a phone) and choose No reply needed. It moves down to All conversations for everyone at your centre. Nothing is sent to the customer and who handles the chat doesn't change. If the customer writes again, the chat comes straight back into Waiting for reply.
- Each thread shows a status badge: "AI Active" (the bot is handling it), "Human Active" (a person has taken over), or "Waiting for reply".
Photos, videos and voice notes
When a customer sends a photo, video, voice note or document, it shows right in the conversation:
- Photos show as a picture. Click one to see it full size, or to download it.
- Videos and voice notes play inside the chat.
- Documents (PDFs and other files) show as a card with the file name. Click it to download.
- Locations and contact cards show as a short label, for example [Location: Sairee Beach].
A new file can take up to a minute to appear. Until then the chat shows Photo arriving…. A file over 25 MB, or one WhatsApp won't hand over, says Open WhatsApp on your phone to see this.
Files are kept for 90 days, then deleted automatically. The conversation text stays, and the chat shows Photo removed after 90 days in its place. If you delete a customer's details, their files are deleted too.
The bot can't open photos or listen to voice notes, so it doesn't guess. It sends the customer one short message saying the team will reply, and hands the chat to you: it appears in Waiting for reply.
Photos and files your team sends from the WhatsApp Business app on the phone show the same way, marked Sent from phone.
Customers who hide their phone number
Some customers use a WhatsApp username and keep their phone number private. Their chats arrive in the Inbox like any other. Under their name you'll see their username (for example @diver.jo) instead of a phone number, or Phone hidden if they have no username. You can read, reply, take over and hand back as normal, and the assistant answers them the same way. Search finds them by name or username.
Because there's no phone number, DiveOps can't match them to bookings by phone. Add their details to a booking by hand if they book.
Taking over and handing back
- Open the conversation.
- Press Take Over (top-right). The bot stops auto-replying and you can type. While the bot is active the message box is disabled with "Take over to reply manually".
- When done, press Release to AI to hand it back.
What happens if you forget to release? That's up to you: open Inbox settings (the gear icon at the top of the conversation list) and choose, under "When you take over a chat":
- Hold until I release · the bot never takes the chat back by itself. It stays with your team until someone presses Release to AI. Keep an eye on the "Waiting for reply" section and the notification bell so held chats aren't forgotten.
- Return to the bot after quiet time (the default) · if nobody on your team replies for the chosen number of hours (3 by default), the bot takes the chat back so the customer isn't left waiting. Every reply you send restarts the clock, so the bot never interrupts while you're actively working a chat.
Only owners and managers can change these settings; everyone else sees them read-only.
By default, when you Take Over the customer gets a short automatic message so a human reply doesn't look like the bot suddenly changed voice (for example "[your name] from [your centre] has joined the chat"). You can change the wording, or turn it off, in Settings → Bot Config → Hand-off notices: see bot-information.md. The on/off switches are also in Inbox settings (the gear icon). The notice is only sent while the 24-hour reply window is open.
Unanswered-message alerts (the notification bell)
If a customer has had the last word for more than 15 minutes and nobody has replied, they appear under Unanswered messages in the notification bell (top bar). Each entry shows who is waiting and for how long:
- An amber dot means they've waited more than 15 minutes; a red dot means more than an hour.
- Click a name to jump straight to that conversation in the Inbox.
- The alert clears for everyone at your centre as soon as anyone replies, whether in DiveOps or from the WhatsApp Business app on a phone.
- If a message needs no answer (a "Thanks!"), press No reply needed on that entry. It clears for everyone, nothing is sent to the customer, and it comes back if they write again. The button only shows to staff who can edit customers.
- Opening the chat does not clear the alert. That is on purpose: a message that was opened and then forgotten is exactly what this list is there to catch.
- Conversations older than 48 hours drop off the list.
This is your safety net for messages that arrive when nobody is watching the Inbox, including the rare case where the bot couldn't reply.
The 24-hour reply window
WhatsApp only allows a free reply within 24 hours of the customer's last message: this is WhatsApp's rule, not ours. The clock resets every time the customer messages you.
- Hover (or tap, on a phone) the ⓘ next to a conversation's status badge for a quick explainer.
- If less than 2 hours are left, you'll see an "Xh left to reply" hint.
- Once the window closes, the message box is replaced with a note explaining that the customer needs to message again before you can reply: the customer's last message is still fully visible, you just can't send a new one until they write back.
Other channels
- Email and Telegram inboxes appear in the menu but are Coming soon: they aren't active yet. WhatsApp is the live channel.
Tips
- Take over for anything sensitive, high-value, or where the bot is going in circles, then release once it's resolved.
Troubleshooting
- WhatsApp isn't connected: the Inbox shows "WhatsApp isn't connected yet" with a Go to WhatsApp Setup button: see whatsapp-setup.md.
- Can't reply, and it's not "AI Active": check the status badge for "Window closed". WhatsApp's 24-hour reply window has passed: see above. This is not a fault with your account; wait for the customer to message again.
- Bot repeats an old wrong answer in a live chat: that conversation is anchored to it; take over and correct the customer directly.