# Let visitors talk to a person

> Turn on the Talk to a person button, let your AI agent ask for a person, and answer requests in Inbox.

Visitors can ask for a person from the chat widget, and your AI agent can ask for one too. Every request lands in **Inbox** for your team to pick up.

## Turn on the button

1. Open **Deployments** and select the deployment.
2. Go to the **Chat widget** tab → **Features**.
3. Turn on **Talk to a person** and select **Save changes**.

The widget adds a headset button (**Talk to a person**) at the end of the composer. It becomes clickable after the visitor's first message.

## What the visitor sees

| Moment | The widget shows |
| --- | --- |
| Request sent, someone available | "Connecting you to a person…" |
| Request sent, nobody available | "No one's available right now — leave your details and we'll follow up." |
| You take over | "You're chatting with" and your initials |
| Request cancelled, or not accepted within 30 minutes | "Thanks for waiting — I'll keep helping you here. Let me know what you need and I'll do my best!" |

While a request waits, the visitor can select **Keep chatting with the AI** to cancel it. They can keep typing the whole time, and their messages stay in the same conversation.

The request reaches Inbox whether or not anyone is available.

## Requests from the AI agent

An AI agent can also request a person if you give it the **Request Operator** tool, directly or inside a Skill. These arrive as AI-agent requests and don't depend on the visitor button. A Skill is the better home, because it can also tell the agent when to ask. See [Teach repeatable behavior with Skills](https://support.help.ai/ai-agents/teach-your-agent-with-skills).

## Mark yourself available

Your availability decides what visitors are told and who gets an alert. It doesn't assign requests to you.

1. In the sidebar, open the **Operator** card. It reads **Offline** or **Available**.
2. In **Operator availability**, turn on **Available for conversations**. This turns on both **Visitor requests** and **AI-agent requests**.
3. Under **Offer a person when…**, turn off the kind of request you don't answer. With one off, the card reads **Available · 1/2**.

When at least one member is available for that kind of request, the visitor sees "Connecting you to a person…". You stay available while the dashboard tab is open, even in the background, and drop out automatically when you close it.

## Answer the request

Requests appear in **Inbox** as **Operator requested**, and the **Dashboard** counts them under **Needs attention** → **Operator requests**.

While you're available, a new request of a kind you have on also:

- plays a short sound;
- shows a browser notification. Select it to open the conversation in Inbox;
- puts the number of waiting requests in the tab title, such as "(2) Inbox".

The browser asks to allow notifications when you turn on **Available for conversations**. If you blocked them, allow notifications for help.ai in your browser's site settings.

Open a request and select **Accept request**. See [Take over a conversation in Inbox](https://support.help.ai/inbox-and-cases/take-over-a-conversation-in-inbox).

<Tip>
Turn on the button only when someone can answer. If your team isn't always online, add a form so visitors can leave their details instead. See [Show a form in the chat widget](https://support.help.ai/forms/show-a-form-in-the-chat-widget).
</Tip>