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FluentBot Beta
This site is under construction. Content, screenshots, and workflows may change at any time.

Live Chat

The Live Chat inbox is where human agents take over conversations the bot can’t handle. When a visitor asks for a person from the widget — or auto-escalation triggers — the chat lands here for an available agent to claim.

Open it from the main sidebar → Live Chat (under Chat Support). It’s a team-level page that aggregates live chats from every bot you have access to.

Live Chat inbox with one pending live chat row in the conversation list — visitor name, last message preview, source bot name — and an empty selected-conversation pane on the right

The inbox sidebar groups related screens:

  • Main Inbox — every pending and active live chat visible to you.
  • Assigned to me — only live chats you’ve claimed or been transferred.
  • Notification — live chat notification preferences.
  • Shortcuts — saved canned replies for fast answers (see Message Shortcuts).

Agent status

Your status is at the top of the page (defaults to Offline). Click to switch:

  • Available — eligible to receive new live chats.
  • Away — not visible to new live chats.
  • Busy — actively handling a chat or set manually.
  • Offline — fully signed out of the inbox.

Inactive agents can be moved to Away automatically. You can also set your own status from the header.

When does a chat escalate?

Escalation is configured per bot in Widget Settings. Triggers:

  • Manual — visitor clicks the escalation button in the widget (when Enable Human Escalation is on).
  • Human-only mode — bot is bypassed entirely; every chat is routed to an agent.

Live chat states

A claimed live chat moves through these states:

StateMeaning
PendingVisitor escalated; no agent has claimed yet. Visible to all available agents.
ActiveAn agent has claimed and is in the conversation.
TransferredReassigned from one agent to another.
ResolvedClosed — visitor solved or agent ended the chat.

The visitor’s widget reflects state changes in real time with waiting indicators, agent-joined banners, and resolved states.

Inbox layout

  • Conversation list — pending and active chats with visitor info and time since handoff. Filter by source via the dropdown above the list.
  • Conversation pane — full message history of the selected chat (visitor + bot turns + agent turns).
  • Composer — rich text editor for typing replies.
  • Internal notes panel — private agent-only notes attached to the chat.
  • Shortcuts panel — saved canned responses for fast replies.

When you don’t have a live chat selected, the right pane shows a “Select a conversation to start chatting” placeholder. The first time you load the inbox, you’ll also see a banner prompting you to enable browser notifications so you’re alerted when new live chats arrive.

Agent actions

While handling a live chat:

  • Claim — move a pending live chat to your active list.
  • Send message — visitor sees the message attributed to the agent (not the bot).
  • Add internal note — visible to other agents only.
  • Use shortcut — insert a saved canned response.
  • Transfer — hand off to another agent.
  • Resolve — close the chat.

The bot does not keep replying once the chat is active with an agent — agent messages are the only responses going to the visitor.

Visitor side

The visitor’s widget reflects the live state:

  • Waiting — “Connecting you to a person…” message.
  • Agent joined — banner with agent’s name; bot stops responding.
  • Resolved — banner that the chat is closed; visitor can start a new one.

Updates appear automatically while the conversation is open.

Routing

Routing is presence-based, not skills-based. Any Available agent on the team can claim any pending escalation.

Email notifications

If a visitor is offline when an agent replies, FluentBot can send an unread-message email after a short delay.

Troubleshooting

  • No live chats show up — confirm escalation is enabled in Widget Settings and the visitor actually clicked the button (or human-only mode is on).
  • My status keeps flipping to Away — you may be idle long enough for auto-away. Keep active, or set yourself Busy.
  • Visitor doesn’t see my reply — confirm the chat is in Active state (you’ve claimed it). Pending chats can’t receive agent messages.
  • Transferred but the new agent didn’t get notified — they need to be Available. Transfers don’t pull Away/Busy agents.

What’s next