Take over from the assistant
How to handle a conversation yourself: what the Take over button changes, what the customer sees, how to reply inside the 24-hour WhatsApp window, and exactly how to hand the conversation back to the assistant afterwards.
- Who
- Agents, admins and owners
- Plan
- All plans
- Role
- Agent and above
Before you start
- A conversation in the inbox
- A connected WhatsApp number
Sometimes a conversation needs a person: the customer is negotiating, complaining, or asking something only you can answer. Take over is the control that moves a conversation from the assistant to you, and keeps it there until you decide otherwise.
What Take over does
The Take over button sits in the conversation header, between Pause AI and Mark resolved. One press changes three things at once and records the action in your audit log.
- The conversation status becomes Agent handling.
- The assistant state becomes Human agent only.
- The conversation is assigned to you — the person who pressed the button. There is no dropdown to choose someone else at that moment.
- An entry is written to the audit log, so it is visible later who took the conversation and when.
From that moment the assistant does not reply in this conversation, no matter how many messages the customer sends. Both the status and the assistant state block it independently, so the conversation stays yours even if somebody changes one of them.
What the customer sees
Nothing. Taking over sends no message, no notice and no "an agent has joined" line — it is an internal change. The customer keeps writing to the same WhatsApp number and sees one continuous conversation; your replies simply arrive from the business, exactly as the assistant’s did.
The one moment a customer is told about a person is when the assistant itself hands over — it sends a short acknowledgement saying someone from the team will get back to them. That happens when a customer asks for a person, sounds frustrated, or raises a sensitive topic, and it is described in When the assistant hands over to a person.
Taking a conversation over
Step 1 Open Dashboard → Conversations and select the conversation.
You should see: The thread opens with the header controls above it.
Step 2 Press Take over.
- The details panel now shows Assistant state: Human agent only and your name under Assign agent.
- If you would rather someone else handled it, change Assign agent in the details panel. Reassigning does not bring the assistant back.
You should see: The status badge changes to Agent handling, an amber banner appears reading "A human agent is handling this conversation — the assistant won't reply.", the Take over button disappears, and the first button in the row changes from Pause AI to a highlighted Resume AI.
Step 3 Write your reply in the box at the bottom and press Send.
- A reply is limited to 4,096 characters.
You should see: Your message appears in the thread in a green bubble labelled Agent, with a delivery status underneath it.
Replying, and what a reply does not do
The reply box is available whether or not you took the conversation over, and the button reads Send (Sending… while it works). Check the delivery status under your bubble afterwards: a red Failed means WhatsApp did not accept the message, the box clears anyway, and there is no retry button — write it again.
The 24-hour window
WhatsApp lets a business send free-text messages only within 24 hours of the customer’s last message. OMAI enforces that rule before anything is sent, for the assistant and for people alike.
- The clock is anchored on the customer’s last incoming message. Nothing else moves it.
- Your own replies do not extend it, and neither do the assistant’s. Only a new message from the customer does.
- When it closes, the reply box is replaced by a template picker under the heading The 24-hour window has closed.
- Approved message templates are the exception WhatsApp allows — they can be sent at any time.
If your business has no approved template yet, the same place shows No approved templates yet with a Go to templates link instead of a picker. Approval is granted by WhatsApp, not by OMAI, so it is worth preparing a template before you need one — see Message templates.
The window can also close between the moment the page loaded and the moment you press Send. That produces the message "The 24-hour window has closed — a free-form reply can't be sent. Please send an approved template instead." Your text is not sent; reload the conversation and send a template.
Handing the conversation back
Step 1 Open the conversation and press Resume AI, the highlighted button in the header.
- The assignment stays as it was — resuming does not unassign the conversation.
- The action is recorded in your audit log, like taking over.
You should see: The assistant state returns to AI active, the amber banner disappears, and the status returns to Open if it was Agent handling or Waiting for agent.
Step 2 Leave the conversation. The next message the customer sends is answered by the assistant.
You should see: New assistant replies appear in blue bubbles labelled AI assistant.
Resume AI doubles as the override for one more situation: if you answered this customer from the WhatsApp app on your own phone, the assistant stands by for a few hours so it does not talk over you. Pressing Resume AI clears that hold immediately.
Take over, Pause AI or Mark resolved?
| Control | What it changes | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Take over | Status Agent handling, assistant state Human agent only, conversation assigned to you. | You are handling this customer yourself and want your team to see that you own it. |
| Pause AI | Assistant state AI paused. The status is untouched and nobody is assigned. | You want the assistant to stop replying here, without claiming the conversation. |
| Mark resolved | Status Resolved. The reply box is replaced by a notice and the assistant stops answering. | The conversation is finished. |
All three affect one conversation only. Stopping the assistant across your whole account is a different control, described in Pause and resume the assistant.
Finishing the conversation
When you are done, press Mark resolved. The reply box is replaced by "This conversation is resolved. Reopen it to send a message.", and the conversation leaves the Open filter. Reopen brings it back if you pressed it too early.
A resolved conversation is closed for good as far as new messages are concerned: the customer’s next message starts a brand-new conversation. The new conversation starts in whatever state the assistant is in for your account, which normally means the assistant answers it — so resolving is also a clean way to hand a customer back after a long manual exchange.
Can two people take over the same conversation?
The second press simply reassigns the conversation to whoever pressed last. Nothing warns either person, so agree in your team who owns which conversation — the Assign agent field in the details panel is there for exactly that.
I took over by mistake. How do I undo it?
Press Resume AI. The conversation returns to Open with the assistant active. The assignment to you remains; clear it with the blank Unassigned option in the details panel if you want.
Does taking over stop the assistant in my other conversations?
No. It affects that one conversation. Every other conversation carries on as before.
Do my manual replies use up my plan’s AI answers?
No. The plan allowance counts AI answers only. Messages you type yourself, messages from customers and test-simulator messages are not counted against it. WhatsApp’s own messaging fees are charged by Meta and are separate from your plan.
The customer wrote three days ago and I need to reach them. What now?
Only an approved template can be sent outside the 24-hour window. Choose one in the template picker, fill in every variable it asks for, and press Send template. Once the customer replies, the window opens again and you can write freely.