An automation was talking to a customer and you stepped in — and the last thing you want is the automation writing over your sentence. The panel handles that for you: the moment you write, automation stops in that conversation. This guide covers how taking over works, how to hand the chat back, and how to make handing back automatic.
In this article you will find:
How taking over happens
Every part of the automation strip
Handing back and stopping the session
The automatic hand-back setting
Common mistakes
How taking over happens
While an automation is running in a conversation, the moment you send a message from the panel the automations pause for that person. There is no separate button; writing is enough.
Taking over happens through all three of these:
Sending text from the message box.
Sending a file.
Sending an approved template through a closed window.
The pause renews with every message you send. As long as you keep writing, the automation stays out of the way.
Two lines are added to the conversation trail at that moment: "joined the conversation" if this is your first message in that chat, and "took over, automation stopped" if an automation was running until then. Both are visible to your team only.
💡 Taking over is not the same as assignment. Taking over says "automation should be quiet for now"; assignment answers "who owns this conversation". The two are independent; see Assigning a conversation to an agent.
Every part of the automation strip
The thin band right under the chat header is the automation strip. It appears only when a conversation has a running automation or a pause; with neither, the strip is not drawn at all.
It can carry:
The automation badge — "Automation: {name}". Tapping it opens that automation's page. A version number, a test marker and the session status can sit next to it.
The pause notice — "Paused · date time". Hovering shows the full sentence: an agent took over and until when the automation is paused.
A plan lock notice — shown when the session was stopped because it reached a step outside your plan. In that case the Hand back to automation button is not shown, because there is no pause to lift.
Hand back to automation — lifts the pause.
Stop session — ends the running session for good.
The strip stays on one line on narrow screens: the text shortens and the buttons shrink, but nothing disappears. On a phone "Stop session" becomes just an icon, with its name kept for screen readers.
The buttons only appear for people with reply permission.
Handing back and stopping the session
There are two ways to leave a conversation to automation, and they are not the same thing.
Handing the conversation back
Open the conversation.
Press Hand back to automation in the automation strip.
The panel says "Automation will continue where it left off."
The automation resumes from the step it was on; it does not start over. A "handed the conversation back to automation" line is added to the trail.
The button only appears while a pause exists. If the automation is already running, there is nothing to hand back.
Stopping the session entirely
Stop session ends the automation session running in that conversation. The panel says "Automation session stopped." and a line is written to the trail.
The difference between pausing and stopping:
Pausing is temporary; the automation waits where it was and can be handed back.
Stopping is final; that session ends. If the person writes again and fires a trigger, a new session starts, but the old one does not continue.
Stopping is the right choice when a conversation has fallen into the wrong flow — for example a customer who entered the ordering flow but actually wants a refund.
The automatic hand-back setting
If nobody presses Hand back to automation, a conversation can stay in an agent's hands for hours, and the automation will not answer when the customer writes again. There is an account-level setting to prevent that.
Open Settings from the menu.
Go to the Messaging page.
In the Handing back to automation block, switch on Hand back to automation when the agent leaves the conversation.
Pick a period in Waiting period: 1, 2, 5, 10, 30 minutes or 1 hour.
Save.
With it on, the rule works like this: if the agent stays silent for the chosen period after their last message, the conversation returns to automation. If the agent writes again, automation stops in the same moment. A conversation the agent never wrote in is already on automation, so the rule does not touch it.
A conversation returned this way gets a line with no actor in its trail: "The agent left the conversation; automation took over". That way the team can answer "why did automation start again" without having to remember the setting.
⚠️ The setting is off by default. While it is off, only the Hand back to automation button returns a conversation.
When choosing the period, weigh two things: a short one hands the chat back sooner, a long one keeps automation from writing over a half-finished reply. For most teams 5–10 minutes is a good starting point.
A worked example
A gym's welcome flow sends membership packages to everyone who writes in. A customer writes "I have an injury, which package suits me?".
A trainer steps into the chat and answers by hand. The strip shows "Paused".
They talk for five minutes; every message renews the pause.
The matter is settled and the trainer moves on to other work.
Automatic hand-back is set to 10 minutes, so the conversation returns to automation ten minutes after the last message.
When the customer writes "can I book a session?" the next day, the automation picks it up again.
Common mistakes
Reading a pause as a fault. If the strip says "Paused", the automation is not broken; somebody wrote in the chat.
Looking for the hand-back button and not finding it. A session stopped by a plan lock has no such button; read the reason the strip gives.
Waiting to hand back after stopping. A stopped session cannot be handed back; a new session only starts from a new trigger.
Setting automatic hand-back too short. One minute can let automation write over an agent who paused mid-sentence.
Thinking taking over stops other conversations too. The pause is only for that person; automations keep running everywhere else.