# Take over a conversation in Inbox

> Watch live visitor conversations, reply as your team, and hand the chat back to the AI agent.

**Inbox** shows live visitor conversations from your deployments. When a conversation needs a person, you take it over, reply in the same thread, and hand it back to the AI agent. The visitor never starts over.

Members with the **Owner**, **Admin** or **Member** role can take over and reply. The **Viewer** role can't take over, reply, hand back or cancel a request.

## Find conversations

Open **Inbox** and filter by **All conversations**, **Operator requested** or **Assigned to operator**, or use **Search conversations...**. Each row shows the conversation, its agent and deployment, the visitor, who is handling it, the number of **Messages**, the last **Operator Activity** and the **Last Message**.

| Operator column | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| Not assigned | The AI agent is replying |
| Operator requested | Someone is waiting for a person |
| Initials | A workspace member has taken over |

The **Visitor** column shows the visitor's name or email when your website passes it to the widget, and a **Verified** badge for visitors your site signed in. See [Verify signed-in users](https://docs.help.ai/customize-and-extend-the-widget/verify-signed-in-users). Other visitors show a short anonymous ID.

## Take over

1. Open the conversation. The transcript updates live, including the agent's tool steps and sources.
2. Check the bar above the reply box. For a request, it says who asked: "Requested by the visitor" or "Requested by the AI agent".
3. Select **Take over**. If someone asked for a person, the button reads **Accept request**.
4. Type your reply. The bar now reads **You're handling this**.

You reply as your business, and the visitor sees "You're chatting with" followed by your initials, never your full name.

You can take over at any time, even while the AI agent is replying. The reply in progress finishes, and the visitor's next message comes to you.

## Hand it back

- **Return to AI agent** gives the conversation back. The agent continues from where the conversation stands.
- **Cancel request** declines a pending request without taking over, and the AI agent carries on.

When a request is cancelled, or nobody accepts it in time, the visitor sees: "Thanks for waiting — I'll keep helping you here. Let me know what you need and I'll do my best!"

## Automatic return to the AI agent

| Situation | What happens |
| --- | --- |
| Nobody accepts a request within 30 minutes | It returns to the AI agent, and the visitor sees the message above |
| The member holding a conversation has no activity for 30 minutes | It returns to the AI agent |
| The member holding a conversation has been away from it for 2 minutes and isn't marked available | It returns to the AI agent |

To stay marked available, see [Let visitors talk to a person](https://support.help.ai/inbox-and-cases/let-visitors-talk-to-a-person).

## When the work outlasts the chat

Open the **Conversation** menu in the composer and choose **Track work from this chat** to create a Case or link an existing one. See [Track follow-up work with Cases](https://support.help.ai/inbox-and-cases/track-follow-up-work-with-cases). **Download transcript**, in the same menu, saves the conversation as a Markdown file.

<Tip>
Only one person can hold a conversation. If another member already has it, the conversation shows **With operator**, the Inbox list shows their initials, and **Take over** is disabled.
</Tip>

## What Inbox doesn't do yet

Inbox covers visitor chats with your AI agents. Email, open and resolved statuses, assignment queues and SLA timers aren't part of it yet.