The assistant isn’t replying
Why an assistant goes quiet — a message that never arrived, a paused conversation, a used-up allowance, a takeover nobody released — with the checks in order, how to confirm the fix, and what support needs from you.
- Who
- Owners, admins and agents
- Plan
- All plans
- Role
- Owner or Admin for assistant settings; Agent or above for conversation controls
Before you start
- A connected WhatsApp number
- A test phone that is not one of your own business numbers
An assistant that says nothing is usually not broken — it has been stopped somewhere, and there are only a handful of places that can stop it. Work down this page in order: first prove the message reached OMAI at all, then check the conversation, then the account. Each symptom below names the state you can see on screen, so you can tell which one you are in.
Check these first
Step 1 Send a WhatsApp message to your business number from a phone that is not one of your own business numbers.
- A message sent from one of your own connected numbers is treated as an echo of your own outgoing message and is never answered. This is the single most common false alarm.
You should see: A reply usually arrives within seconds. Give it a minute before drawing a conclusion.
Step 2 Open Dashboard → Conversations and find that conversation.
You should see: If the message is not in the inbox at all, this is a delivery problem rather than an assistant problem — continue in Messages aren’t arriving.
Step 3 Open the conversation and read the banner above the messages and the buttons above it.
You should see: A banner names the reason the assistant is holding back. A Resume AI button where you expect Pause AI means the assistant is stopped in this conversation.
Step 4 Open Dashboard → WhatsApp Connection and check the badge on the number.
You should see: Anything other than Connected — especially Action required — stops replies from leaving OMAI on that number.
Symptoms and fixes
Nothing comes back at all, on a number that has never answered.
Likely causes
- You tested from one of your own business numbers, so the message was treated as an echo and dropped.
- The number is not connected here, or its card is not on Connected.
- The organization is suspended or waiting to be deleted — inbound messages are not taken in and nothing is sent out.
- On a number that also runs in the WhatsApp Business app on your phone, the answering scope is New contacts only and the person writing is already one of your contacts — or the connect-time import of contacts and history has not settled yet.
What to do
- Repeat the test from a phone that is not saved in your contacts and is not one of your business numbers.
- Confirm the badge on WhatsApp Connection reads Connected, and fix it first if it does not — see WhatsApp connection problems.
- On a number that also runs on your phone, open Assistant answering settings for this number on the WhatsApp screen and read Who the AI answers. Switch it to Everyone who writes if that is what you want.
- Right after connecting such a number, allow the contact and history import to finish. Until both finish, or up to 24 hours after connecting, the assistant deliberately stays quiet with New contacts only.
- Check Billing for a suspended account, and write to us if the account is marked for deletion by mistake.
How to check it worked
A message from an unknown phone gets a reply, and the reply appears in the conversation labelled AI assistant.
When to contact us
Send us your business number, the number you tested from, the exact time and time zone, and whether the test message appears in the inbox. Those four together tell us which stage failed.
It answered before and has stopped.
Likely causes
- The connection needs reconnecting — the WhatsApp screen shows a banner asking you to reconnect, or the card is on Action required.
- The plan’s included AI answers are used up for this period.
- The subscription lapsed, or the 14-day trial ended, so AI answers are no longer permitted.
- A team member took over a conversation, or paused the assistant in it.
- One conversation produced more than 20 assistant replies in an hour and was stopped automatically to break a loop. That conversation stays on AI paused until a person resumes it.
What to do
- Fix the connection first if a reconnect banner is showing. Nothing else matters while replies cannot leave.
- Open Dashboard → Billing and read Usage this period → AI answers.
- Open the conversation and press Resume AI if the button is there.
- If several unrelated conversations went quiet at the same moment, treat it as an account-level cause — allowance, subscription, or an account-wide pause — not a conversation one.
How to check it worked
Send a test message from an unknown phone and watch the answer arrive; the AI answers figure on the billing screen goes up by one.
When to contact us
Write to us with the customer’s number, the time of the last reply the assistant did send, and a screenshot of Usage this period.
It answers some people and not others.
Likely causes
- On a number that also runs on your phone, Who the AI answers is set to New contacts only — known contacts and people with existing chat history are left to you.
- You replied to that customer from your phone, so the assistant stands by in that conversation and comes back automatically after the quiet hours set for the number — 6 by default.
- The conversation is on Agent handling or Waiting for agent, so it belongs to a person.
- The customer last wrote more than 24 hours ago. WhatsApp only allows a free-form reply within 24 hours of the customer’s message, so an old thread gets nothing until they write again.
- The customer sent several messages in a row, and the assistant answered the most recent one instead of each of them.
What to do
- Open the conversation that failed and read its banner — it says which of these applies.
- Press Resume AI to hand a conversation back to the assistant, including one you answered from your phone.
- Change Who the AI answers to Everyone who writes if you want the assistant to answer contacts you already know.
- Adjust AI resumes after on the same panel if 6 quiet hours is too long for your business. Any whole number between 1 and 24 is accepted.
- For a conversation older than 24 hours, send an approved template — see Message templates.
How to check it worked
Compare two conversations, one answered and one not: their banners and their status chips will differ, and that difference is the reason.
When to contact us
Send us the two customer numbers — one the assistant answered, one it did not — with the times. Pairs are far faster to diagnose than a single example.
It stopped when the plan’s AI answers ran out.
Likely causes
- Starter includes 1,250 AI answers a month and stops answering there.
- Growth includes 4,000, keeps answering under fair use to 6,000, and stops there.
- Pro includes 10,000, keeps answering under fair use to 15,000, and stops there.
- The subscription is unpaid or the trial expired, which blocks AI answers regardless of the counter.
What to do
- Open Dashboard → Billing and read Usage this period. The AI answers row is the number that matters; customer messages you receive are listed separately and are not counted against the plan.
- Change plan from the same screen to raise the allowance — see Change your plan.
- If a payment failed, settle it first: an unpaid subscription blocks answering even with allowance left.
- Until the allowance is restored, watch the Handoff filter in the inbox — those conversations are waiting for a person.
How to check it worked
The customer is not left in silence: they receive “Thanks! I’m connecting you with a team member who will get back to you shortly.” and the conversation moves to Waiting for agent. After you raise the plan, a fresh test message gets a normal answer again.
When to contact us
Send us your organization name, the plan you are on, a screenshot of Usage this period, and the time answering stopped. Handovers caused by the allowance do not consume an AI answer.
A person took over and the assistant never came back.
Likely causes
- Someone pressed Take over. That sets the conversation to Agent handling and hands it to a person; the assistant does not resume there by itself.
- Someone pressed Pause AI in that conversation.
- The assistant handed the conversation over and a person was notified, so it waits for that person rather than answering over them.
- A team member simply replied from the inbox. The assistant does not reply on top of a human reply to the same customer message.
What to do
- Open the conversation and press Resume AI. The status returns to Open and the assistant answers the next message.
- If the work is finished, press Mark resolved instead. The next message from that customer opens a fresh conversation, which starts with the assistant active.
- Use the Handoff filter in the inbox to find every conversation currently waiting for a person.
How to check it worked
The buttons above the conversation read Pause AI and Take over again, and the banner about a human agent is gone.
When to contact us
If Resume AI does not change the state, send us the customer’s number, the exact time you pressed it, and the status chip shown on the conversation.
The whole account is paused.
Likely causes
- Someone paused the assistant for the whole organization, so every conversation is suppressed regardless of its own state.
- The overview shows the banner “The assistant is paused”, and the Your assistant card reads Paused.
What to do
- Open Dashboard → Overview and read the badge on the Your assistant card. Paused confirms it.
- Press Resume the assistant on that card. The same button also sits beside the state badge on Assistant Settings.
- Do not expect Resume AI in a conversation to help. A conversation-level resume does not lift an account-level pause.
- Only Owners and Admins can resume it. If you do not see the button, ask one of them — or contact support.
How to check it worked
The paused banner disappears from the overview, and a test message from an unknown phone is answered.
When to contact us
Tell us your organization name and roughly when answering stopped for every conversation at once. That last detail is what distinguishes an account-wide pause from a per-conversation one.
What to send us
- Your business WhatsApp number, in international format.
- The number you tested from, and confirmation that it is not one of your own connected numbers.
- The exact time and time zone of the test.
- Whether the message appears in Conversations, and what the conversation’s status chip says.
- The badge on the WhatsApp Connection card, and the
detailline under Technical details. - A screenshot of Usage this period from the billing screen.
- Whether one conversation is affected or all of them.
How fast should a reply arrive?
Usually within seconds of the customer’s message. We do not promise a reply time: a slow AI provider or a busy queue can add a delay, so wait a minute before treating silence as a fault.
Why did my own test get no reply?
Because you sent it from a number that is connected to the same account. A message arriving from one of your own business numbers is treated as your own outgoing message coming back, and it is dropped so the assistant cannot end up talking to itself. Test from a personal phone instead.
Does the assistant answer outside business hours?
Yes. Business hours change what the assistant says — it can tell customers you are closed and use your after-hours message as guidance — but they never stop it answering.
Half the setup wizard is empty. Is that why it is quiet?
No. Answering is switched on by connecting a WhatsApp number, and nothing in the setup wizard holds it back. An empty knowledge base changes what the assistant can say — it will tell the customer it does not have that information rather than invent it — but it does not make the assistant silent.