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Your AI agent handles website chats until a visitor needs a person. Then a teammate joins from the Conversations inbox and replies in the same chat window.
Live chat in the IrisAgent inbox works with the IrisAgent website chat widget and WhatsApp. To route live chats to another tool instead, see Salesforce, Zendesk Messaging, Intercom, or Freshchat.

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How it works

  1. A visitor chats with your AI agent on your website.
  2. The visitor asks for a person, or the AI escalates. The chat moves to the Waiting queue in Conversations. The bot keeps answering while the visitor waits.
  3. A teammate clicks Join chat. The bot pauses and the teammate replies in real time.
  4. The teammate clicks End chat & return to bot, and the AI takes over again.

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Turn on live chat

You need IrisAgent admin access.
  1. Go to Deploy → Chat channels.
  2. On the Website Chatbot card, click Manage and open the chatbot configuration you use on your website.
  3. Open the Handoff tab.
  4. Under Method, choose Start a live chat.
  5. Under Live chat destination, choose IrisAgent inbox (your team replies from Conversations).
  6. Optional: turn on Automatically escalate when no answer is found.
  7. Save the configuration.
Repeat for each chatbot configuration that should offer live chat.

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When chats are escalated

A chat moves to the Waiting queue when:
  • The visitor asks for a person. Requests such as “talk to a human” trigger your chatbot’s Agent handoff procedure. New chatbots include it by default, and you can edit what it says and collects.
  • A procedure escalates, for example after collecting an order number. See Workflows.
  • The AI has no answer, if you turned on Automatically escalate when no answer is found.
Escalated conversations are marked Agent requested, set to New, and given High priority.

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Answer a live chat

The bar above the composer shows who is handling the chat:

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Join and reply

  1. Open the Waiting queue in Conversations and select the chat.
  2. Read the conversation so far and any Captured details.
  3. Click Join chat. The conversation is assigned to you and set to In progress.
  4. Type in the Chat tab and press Enter. The visitor sees your message within a few seconds.
If you reply without joining first, the button reads Take over & send, and sending takes over the chat.

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Step in before the visitor asks

Click Take over from bot on any website chat to pause the AI and reply yourself, for example for a frustrated customer.

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Take over from a teammate

Click Take over to reassign a teammate’s chat to you. Only the owner can end a live chat, so take it over first if you need to end it.

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End the chat

Click End chat & return to bot to hand the visitor back to the AI. Click Mark resolved to close the conversation. Resolving also ends any open live chat.

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What the visitor sees

  • While waiting: “Connecting you to a support agent…”. The AI keeps answering in the meantime.
  • After a teammate joins: “You’re chatting with <name>.”
  • After the chat ends: “The agent has left the chat. Our assistant can help with anything else.”
Chats stay connected if the visitor reloads the page.

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Good to know

  • Live chat replies are text only.
  • There are no agent availability settings or business hours yet. Waiting chats stay queued until a teammate joins or resolves them. If your team isn’t always online, ask for an email address in your handoff procedure so you can follow up by email.
  • Conversations answered by a teammate are not counted as AI resolutions.
  • Website chats close automatically 4 days after they start. The visitor can still read the transcript and can start a new chat with the reset icon.

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Troubleshooting

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The Chat tab says live chat is off for this chatbot

The chatbot’s live chat destination isn’t the IrisAgent inbox. An admin can change it in the Handoff tab. See Turn on live chat. You can still send an email or add a note.

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There is no chat reply option on a conversation

Live chat replies work only for the IrisAgent website chat widget and WhatsApp. Voice and other chat tools (such as Intercom or Zendesk) can’t receive replies from the IrisAgent inbox.

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”Take over the conversation before replying”

A teammate took over while you were typing. Click Take over to continue yourself.