Hand conversations to a human and work the inbox

Before you begin

Have a chatbot, access to its Handoff settings, and a teammate available to test the Inbox. Decide when your team can respond and what visitors should see outside those hours. A handoff request is not a promise of an immediate human reply.

Example from the Chyt.ai dashboard (September 2026).

Configure escalation

1. Open Chatbots → your chatbot → Settings → Handoff and turn on Enable Handoff.
2. Set Escalation Message to explain the next step. Visitors can request assistance with a phrase such as “talk to a human.”
3. If needed, enable Auto-escalate on Low Confidence. Set Confidence Threshold and test representative questions. A higher threshold can send more conversations to your team.
4. Optionally enter a Webhook URL and Webhook Secret under Webhook Notification. Your receiving service should validate the HMAC-SHA256 signature in X-Chyt-Signature before acting on a request.
5. Optionally set Redirect URL for a support or scheduling page. The visitor is shown a link after escalation.
6. Write an accurate Offline Message, then select Save Changes.
7. If the chatbot uses a flow, connect the relevant route to a Handoff node. Save and test the flow, then activate it when ready.

Handle the conversation

1. Open Inbox from the dashboard and set your availability to Online, Away, or Offline.
2. In a separate visitor conversation, request a human. Return to the inbox and choose Unassigned to find new work.
3. Open the conversation and read its history before replying.
4. Select Claim to take responsibility. Use My Conversations to return to conversations assigned to you; All broadens the queue view.
5. Enter your response in Type your reply... and send it. Confirm in the visitor window that the reply arrives before relying on this channel for live support.
6. Select Resolve after the visitor's issue is handled. Record any knowledge improvement needed by reviewing the original conversation.

What you should see

A handoff becomes visible to the team, a claimed conversation can receive a human reply, and resolution updates its state. Transfer is currently displayed as a disabled control; do not build a workflow around transferring assignments through that button.

Troubleshooting

• The flow test only says it would escalate: Test Flow previews the handoff. Use a real chat session to verify the inbox and delivery.
• No conversation in Unassigned: check the workspace, the chatbot's Handoff setting, and All or My Conversations.
• Too many automatic handoffs: review the confidence threshold and improve the underlying sources or instructions.
• Webhook did not reach your helpdesk: verify the destination, its availability, and signature handling with the receiving service. Keep the webhook secret private.
• A visitor expects an immediate response while agents are offline: revise the offline and escalation messages to match your support process.

Continue learning

Flow routing · Conversation review and analytics · Messaging channels