Live Chat
Real-time agent inbox for human conversations — assign, transfer, and resolve tickets across your team.
Overview
The Live Chat inbox is where your human agents handle conversations that require personal attention. It complements chatbots by catching edge cases, handling complex queries, and building customer relationships.- Real-time updates via Pusher — messages and status changes appear instantly, no manual refresh needed.
- All incoming messages appear here regardless of chatbot activity.
- Agents only see conversations assigned to them (or unassigned, based on role).
- Admins see all conversations.
- Each conversation has a status: Open, In Progress, Resolved.
Conversation Lifecycle
| Status | Description |
|---|---|
| Open | New or unassigned conversation waiting for an agent. |
| In Progress | Assigned to an agent actively working on it. |
| Resolved | Marked done by agent or auto-resolved after inactivity. |
| Reopened | Contact replied to a Resolved conversation — automatically moves back to Open. |
Assigning Conversations
1
Auto-assignment
Enable round-robin auto-assignment in Settings → Live Chat → Auto-Assign. MotherBot distributes new conversations evenly across online agents.
2
Manual assignment
Open any conversation, click the Assign dropdown in the top-right, and select an agent. The agent is notified immediately.
3
Transfer
To transfer mid-conversation, click Transfer, select the new agent, and optionally add a transfer note. The new agent sees the full history plus your note.
Quick Replies
Quick Replies are saved response snippets your team can insert with a shortcut:- Go to Settings → Quick Replies → New Reply.
- Give it a shortcut name (e.g. /shipping) and the full message text.
- In the chat window, type / to see available shortcuts and select one.
- Quick Replies support template variables like {{contact.name}}.
- Admins can create shared replies; agents can create personal ones.
Tip
Set up Quick Replies for your 10 most common questions. Studies show this can reduce average handle time by 40%.
Chatbot Handoff
When a chatbot decides it can't handle a query, it can hand off to a human agent:- In the chatbot editor, use the 'Assign to Agent' action as the last step.
- The conversation appears in the Live Chat inbox as a new Open ticket.
- All chatbot conversation history is preserved — agents see the full context.
- The chatbot stops responding once an agent is assigned.
- When the agent marks the conversation Resolved, the chatbot can resume (configurable).
Agent Availability
Agents can set their availability status — this affects auto-assignment:| Status | Auto-assign eligible |
|---|---|
| Online | Yes — receives new conversations. |
| Busy | No — won't receive new auto-assignments but can work existing ones. |
| Offline | No — conversations skip this agent. |
Internal Notes
Agents can leave internal notes on any conversation that are visible to the team but never sent to the contact:- Click the 'Note' tab in the reply box (instead of 'Reply').
- Notes are highlighted in yellow in the conversation timeline.
- Use notes to document context, escalation reasons, or instructions for other agents.
- Mention team members with @name to notify them.