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Your agent handles most conversations, but sometimes it is better that you answer: an important customer, a delicate case, a negotiation. You can take control and hand it back when you are done.

What you will get

You will reply in person in a conversation, with Eva quiet in the meantime, and you will give control back when it is no longer needed.

Requirements

  • Access to the Inbox
  • A conversation on a channel that allows stepping in (see the limits further down)

Take control

1

Open the conversation

In your Inbox, open the conversation you want to step into.
2

Take the conversation

Select Take conversation. Eva asks whether you want to reply yourself or pass it to someone on your team:
  • Yes, take conversation — you reply.
  • No, escalate to team — you assign it to another person.
Above the message box, on the right, the Take conversation button.

The control that takes the conversation sits above the message box.

Window offering Yes, take conversation and No, escalate to team.

The question that appears before the conversation becomes yours.

3

Reply

Write your message and send it.

How to know it worked

The conversation shows that it is in a person’s hands, and Eva stops replying on its own while you are handling it.
Conversation header showing a team member's name instead of Eva.

The conversation header names the person who is handling it.

Hand the conversation back to Eva

Select Return to the assistant. Your agent picks the conversation back up. In chats, Eva sees what your team replied while handling the conversation and continues from there.
Above the message box, the Return to the assistant button beside the conversation channel.

The control that hands the conversation back appears while a person is handling it.

Eva can also take control back after 24 hours without team activity. Customer messages do not restart that clock. Use I’ll keep it if you need more time, or I’ll always handle it to handle that conversation yourself until the end.

Keep a conversation with no time limit

While you handle a conversation, the bar above the message box shows how long until it goes back to Eva. Right there you have two options:
  • I’ll keep it: gives you another 24 hours from that moment.
  • I’ll always handle it: the conversation no longer goes back to Eva on its own. The notice changes to Returns to Eva only when you hand it back.
It applies only to that conversation and only while you handle it. Once you hand it back to Eva, it ends; if you take it again later, the 24-hour clock starts again. If you change your mind, select I’ll keep it and the 24-hour clock runs again. For Eva to never answer a teammate, use Add to team on their conversation (Mark as team). For Eva not to answer on your personal WhatsApp, turn off Eva answers for me on that number.

When Eva comes back on its own

These are two different things, and it pays not to mix them up:
  • Eva may join an escalation again when its human handling period ends, while the team still owns the conversation.
  • Control returns to Eva after 24 hours from the last team activity or when an I’ll keep it extension ends. This is a fixed period; customer messages do not restart it. With I’ll always handle it there is no period: it returns only when you hand it back.
On personal WhatsApp, automatic return works only while Eva answers for me is on and the number remains connected. An existing conversation can also return 24 hours after Eva was enabled or the team’s last activity, whichever is later. With the switch off or the number disconnected, you keep control. Manual handback applies forward; on automatic return Eva can consider the newest new unanswered message. Eva decides whether to reply.

On WhatsApp, the 24-hour window

WhatsApp only allows free writing during the 24 hours after the customer’s last message. Past that point, Eva says so above the message box, and your text goes out as a reopen that WhatsApp has to approve before delivering it. This window is WhatsApp’s own, and it has nothing to do with Eva’s automatic return. While Eva is still handling the conversation, that notice carries Take conversation and write: you take control and write in a single step.
The template composer inside the conversation, with the approved templates ready to send.

With the window closed, the message box becomes the template composer: you pick one of your WhatsApp-approved templates and send it from there.

Once the conversation is yours, the same notice shows Will be sent as a template and the In a hurry? Send an approved template shortcut, in case you would rather resume right away with a template WhatsApp already approved.
Will be sent as a template indicator beside the reopen notice and the approved-template shortcut.

The same closed window, with the conversation under human control.

If something goes wrong

Not every channel allows stepping in the same way. On Messenger and Instagram the customer must have written first, and the channel’s reply window must still be open.
The channel’s reply window may have closed, or the channel connection may have dropped while you had the conversation open. Read the notice above the message box: it explains what is missing.
Manual handback of a personal WhatsApp chat applies forward: Eva waits for a new message. In other chats, Eva may resume a pending message while the channel’s reply window is open.

Next steps

Use the Inbox

Track your sales in the pipeline