Conversation and team actions

An automation cannot solve everything: at some point you have to connect the customer to a human, give the conversation to the right agent and let your team know. Conversation and team actions build that bridge. This article covers four actions one by one: Assign conversation, Conversation status, Hand over to a person and Notify the team.

⚠️ Note: None of these four sends anything to the customer. Even Notify the team is only visible to your team inside the panel. Talking to the customer needs message steps.

In this article you will find:

• Assign conversation
• Conversation status
• Hand over to a person
• Notify the team
• Using all four together
• Limits and known issues
• Common mistakes

Assign conversation

The Assign conversation action sets the owner of the chat: which team member will look after this customer.

1. Choose Assign conversation as the kind.
2. Pick the person from the Team member list. To clear the assignment, choose Unassign.

The list only shows team members who can reach that account. If a member of your portfolio has no access to this account, they do not appear; this is the same rule as the portfolio's account access.

One more check happens at run time: if the member you picked has left the team or lost access to that account, the assignment is not made and the flow continues without stopping. It is built that way so the automation does not pile chats onto someone who is no longer in the team — but you should still review the assign actions in your flows after a team change.

If the person has no conversation (in a flow running purely from a comment context, for example), the action is skipped.

The assignment overrides the account's automatic assignment rule. The Assigning new chats rule under Settings › Team distributes incoming chats by itself; this action in the flow changes that decision. When you use both, watch which one has the last word: the flow runs later, so the flow wins.

Conversation status

The Conversation status action sets the chat to Open or Closed. The default choice is Closed.

• Open — The chat stays among the conversations that need attention in the inbox.
• Closed — The chat counts as resolved and drops out of the list.

The action is useful at the end of flows that complete by themselves: the person asked about an order's status, the flow answered, and nobody needs to look at it — closing the chat keeps your inbox clean.

When the person writes again the chat reopens by itself, so closing it does not lose anything.

Hand over to a person

Hand over to a person is the action that stops the automation and leaves the chat to your team. It does three things at once:

• It ends the flow's session. The steps attached to the Then output are never reached.
• It pauses the automation in that conversation for a while, so no other flow butts in while your team is writing.
• It opens the conversation (sets the status to Open).

You can also assign it to someone at the same time: just make a choice in the Team member list. If you do not, the conversation keeps its current assignment.

The hint under the step says it briefly: the automation stops in this conversation and the flow ends; the conversation opens for the team.

When the pause expires, the automation can run again in that conversation. If the team wants to give the chat back sooner, they use the Hand back to the automation button on the automation bar in the inbox; the details are in Taking over and handing back automation.

⚠️ Note: Actions written after Hand over to a person in the same step still run — what ends is not the step but the continuation of the flow. Even so, put the handover last: whoever reads the flow answers "what happens next" from the last line in the box.

Notify the team

The Notify the team action drops a notification to your team in the panel.

1. Choose Notify the team as the kind.
2. Write the message into the Notification text box (at most 300 characters).

The notification goes only to team members who can see the inbox, and tapping it opens the inbox. It never reaches the customer under any circumstances.

Writing something useful matters. Instead of "Something happened", write an actionable sentence like "The payment link has not been opened three times — call the customer." Because the notification carries no link to the contact card, make it clear from the text itself which customer you mean.

The action is for situations where a human needs to make a decision but the flow should keep going: the flow carries on with its work and the team is informed in the background. To stop the flow, you need Hand over to a person.

Using all four together

An estate agency greets high-intent buyers like this:

1. Condition: "Field · budget · greater than · 3000000"
2. True branch → an Action step:
   1. Add tag: high-budget
   2. Assign conversation: senior advisor
   3. Notify the team: "A high-budget buyer has arrived — call within the first half hour."
   4. Hand over to a person
3. False branch → an Action step: Conversation status · Closed, and the flow ends with an automatic information message.

The order is deliberate: the tag goes on first (so filters are right immediately), then the assignment, then the notification (so the team knows whose chat it is), and the handover sits last.

Limits and known issues

• A Notify the team text is at most 300 characters, and publishing is blocked if it is left empty.
• The Assign conversation list only shows members who can reach the account; an assignment to a member who has lost access is not made at run time.
• Assign conversation, Conversation status and Hand over to a person need a conversation. In flows without one (a pure comment context) they are skipped.
• Hand over to a person ends the flow's session; steps attached to the Then output do not run.
• In global rules (Automations › Rules), Hand over to a person only opens the conversation: there is no flow session to pause.
• All four are separate plan features; if your plan does not cover one, the session stops at that step.
• In the session log these actions appear as their kinds on a single Action line; the handover also writes "Handed over to a person" as the session's end reason.

Common mistakes

• Trying to send a message after the handover. Steps after it are never reached; move the message earlier.
• Mistaking "Notify the team" for a message to the customer. The notification only appears in the panel.
• Using assignment instead of a handover. Assignment sets the owner but does not stop the automation; the flow keeps talking over your agent.
• Leaving an assignment to a member who has left. The action is skipped quietly; review your flows after team changes.
• Being afraid to lose something by closing a chat. The chat reopens by itself when the person writes.
• Writing a vague notification. Your team should be able to tell what to do from the text.

If these actions do not work as you expect, see My action isn't working or contact our Support team.

Related articles

• The action step and ordering
• Channel and message conditions
• Taking over and handing back automation
• Assigning a conversation to an agent
• Roles