Pause and resume the assistant
Every level at which the assistant can be stopped — the whole organization, one WhatsApp number, one conversation — what each affects, who can do it, and how each one is undone.
- Who
- Owners, admins and agents
- Plan
- All plans
- Role
- Agent for one conversation; Owner or Admin for a number or the whole organization
Before you start
- A connected WhatsApp number
Answering can be stopped at three different levels, and they are independent: a conversation that is set to answer still stays silent if the level above it is stopped. Whatever you pause, customers can still message you and their messages still arrive in the inbox.
The three levels
| Level | What it stops | Who can set it | How it is undone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whole organization | Every conversation, on every connected number. | Owner or Admin | Resume the assistant, from the same place you paused it. |
| One WhatsApp number | On a number that also runs on your phone: which customers are answered, plus a quiet period after you reply from the phone yourself. | Owner or Admin | Change the answering scope back, or press Resume AI on the conversation to end the quiet period early. |
| One conversation | Replies in that thread only. | Agent, Admin or Owner | Press Resume AI on the conversation. |
The whole organization
At organization level the assistant has a single state. While it is paused, the assistant answers nothing at all: every inbound message simply goes unanswered by the assistant and sits in the inbox, on every number, including conversations that are individually set to be answered. Nobody is notified and the customer is told nothing, so your team has to be watching. Pausing and resuming are recorded in the audit log.
The control is the Pause the assistant button on the Your assistant card on the Overview, and the same button beside the state badge on the Style and behavior card in Assistant Settings. Only Owners and Admins see it. It does not appear before a WhatsApp number is connected — there is nothing to pause yet — and it is withheld from an organization that is suspended or awaiting deletion, because that account is already stopped.
Pause everything, and start again
Step 1 Open Overview and find the Your assistant card at the top of the page.
You should see: The card shows the current state — Live, Paused, Setting up or Needs a look — with your connected number under it.
Step 2 Press Pause the assistant.
- Cancel leaves everything as it was. Nothing is paused until you confirm.
You should see: The button becomes Yes, pause and a line appears explaining what is about to happen: the assistant stops answering until you resume it, and messages still arrive in your inbox.
Step 3 Press Yes, pause.
You should see: The badge changes to Paused, a banner appears at the top of the Overview, and answering stops on every number within seconds.
Step 4 Press Resume the assistant when you want it back.
You should see: Answering restarts immediately — resuming asks for no confirmation — and the badge returns to Live.
One WhatsApp number
A number connected in coexistence mode — one that still works in the WhatsApp Business app on your phone — carries its own answering rules, set per number on the WhatsApp Connection page under Assistant answering settings for this number.
- Who the AI answersChoice
- New contacts only answers people who are not in your contacts and have no chat history with you; Everyone who writes answers everybody on that number.
Default:
New contacts only·Applies to that number alone. Right after connecting, answering is held back until the contact and history import settles, for up to 24 hours. - AI resumes afterNumber of hours
- When you reply to a customer yourself from the phone app, the assistant stops replying in that conversation. This is how long it waits, with no further reply from you, before it resumes on its own.
Default:
6 quiet hours·A whole number of hours from 1 to 24.
Step 1 Open WhatsApp Connection from the sidebar and expand the settings for the number.
Step 2 Choose New contacts only or Everyone who writes, and set AI resumes after.
Step 3 Press Save settings.
You should see: The confirmation Settings saved. appears, and the rule applies to the next message on that number.
While a quiet period is running, the conversation shows a banner saying that you replied from your phone and roughly how many hours remain. Pressing Resume AI on that conversation clears it immediately.
One conversation
Step 1 Open the conversation from the inbox.
Step 2 Press Pause AI in the action row above the thread.
- Pausing changes nothing for your other conversations, and the customer is told nothing.
You should see: A banner appears saying the assistant will not reply in this conversation, and the button becomes Resume AI.
Step 3 Reply yourself as long as you need to.
- Free-form replies are possible for 24 hours after the customer’s last message; after that you need an approved template.
Step 4 Press Resume AI when the assistant should take the conversation back.
You should see: The assistant answers the customer’s next message in that conversation again.
Two neighbouring buttons stop the assistant in the same thread for different reasons. Take over assigns the conversation to you and marks it as handled by a person; Mark resolved closes it, and the customer’s next message then opens a fresh conversation that the assistant answers from the start. Both are undone from the same row — see Taking over a conversation.
Pauses you did not set
| Cause | What happens | How it clears |
|---|---|---|
| A handover to your team | The conversation moves to Waiting for agent and the assistant stops replying there. | A person takes over and presses Resume AI — see When the assistant hands over to a person. |
| Anti-loop limit in one conversation | After 20 assistant replies in that conversation within an hour, the conversation is set to AI paused and nothing further is sent. | Press Resume AI on the conversation once you know what caused the loop. |
| Anti-loop limit across the organization | After 300 assistant replies across the organization within an hour, further replies are held back. No conversation changes state. | It clears by itself as the hour rolls forward. |
| The plan’s AI answers are used up, or billing is blocked | The message is handed to your team instead of being answered, recorded as Manual handoff. | Upgrade or resolve the payment, then resume the conversation — see Usage and allowances. |
| WhatsApp’s 24-hour window has closed | No free-form reply is sent, by the assistant or by you. | The customer writing again reopens the window; until then, an approved template is the only outbound message. |
What a pause does not change
- Customers can still message the number, and those messages appear in the inbox.
- Your team can still reply by hand, and can still send approved templates.
- Nothing is announced to the customer — a paused conversation simply gets no automatic reply.
- Your knowledge base, tone settings and business hours are untouched.
- Meta’s own messaging fees are billed by Meta and are unaffected by anything you pause here.
How do I stop the assistant everywhere, right now?
Press Pause the assistant on the Your assistant card on the Overview and confirm. Answering stops on every number within seconds. Your inbox keeps receiving messages while it is paused, so nothing is lost while you work out what to change.
Does marking a conversation resolved stop the assistant for that customer?
In that thread, yes. Their next message starts a new conversation, and the assistant answers it.
Can an Agent pause the assistant?
For a single conversation, yes — Pause AI, Resume AI, Take over and Mark resolved are all available from the Agent role upwards. Number-level and organization-level settings need an Admin or the Owner.
Will the assistant un-pause itself?
Only in one case: the quiet period on a coexistence number ends by itself once enough time has passed since you replied from your phone. A conversation you paused, took over or resolved stays that way until someone changes it.
Is a pause recorded anywhere?
Yes. Pausing and resuming, at conversation level and at organization level, are written to the audit log with the person who did it — see Audit log.