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". It shows chats the bot has escalated to your team (red dot) and taken-over chats where the customer has said something you haven't opened yet (amber dot). Use the search box to find a person. Clearing a "Waiting for reply" alert from the notification bell clears it for everyone at your centre (not just your screen); it comes back if that customer is handed to a human again. The Clear 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.
- Each thread shows a status badge: "AI Active" (the bot is handling it), "Human Active" (a person has taken over), or "Waiting for reply".
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 — nobody has opened the chat and no reply has gone out — 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 an entry to jump straight to that conversation in the Inbox.
- The alert clears itself as soon as someone opens the chat. 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 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.