The Conversations app offers three different statuses for agents: Online, Offline, or Invisible. In this article, we will help you understand the difference between the three statuses and see how to switch from one status to the other.
Depending on your status, the chat widget will appear in Live chat or Messenger mode. To learn more, check our dedicated article Live chat vs. Messenger mode.
When Online, agents appear available to visitors and should answer live to their messages. Messages from visitors appear in the Conversations tab of agents. The chat widget appears as a live chat.
When Offline, agents do not receive notifications and the chat widget is displayed in Messenger mode which lets visitors know that they can contact you but must expect a delay in response. You can also choose not to display the chat widget to customers when offline. To learn more, check our dedicated article How to choose when your chatbox is available to your website visitors.
If you enabled the chat widget when agents are offline, customers can ask questions through the chat widget and you will be able to reply to them directly from Conversations or by email.
You can still receive missed messages by email if you select the Forward (conversation transcripts,) missed and offline messages (only) option in Conversations > Settings > Preferences. To learn more, check our dedicated article Change my Conversations notification settings.
When Invisible, agents won't receive new chats, and the targeted chats enabled when visitors are online won't be sent. The invisible status can be useful when agents need to focus on other tasks and shouldn't be disturbed, or have too many conversations to handle. If all agents are invisible or offline, the chat widget will appear in Messenger mode or be disabled depending on the settings you chose. The Messenger mode lets visitors know that they can contact you but must expect a delay in response.
When invisible, agents appear offline to visitors but can still:
- Receive new conversations if other agents delay a response and the visitor is waiting for a reply for too long.
Activate this option from Settings > Chat profile > Advanced settings by checking the Receive new chat notifications when invisible if online agents delay in responding box. - Join a conversation by themselves by initiating a reply in the Conversations tab, or be added to a conversation by another agent. Agents who joined a conversation will become online and stay online in the ongoing chats joined prior to going invisible. To learn more, check our dedicated article Assign visitors to a specific agent or group.
Switching from one status to another
To let your visitors know if you are online or offline, change your status. The chat widget will automatically display in Live chat or Messenger mode according to your status.
You can switch from one status to the other manually if you take a break for example. You can also automatically switch to Offline mode at the end of your day or after a specific period of time.
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You can easily switch from one status to the other by clicking on your profile picture in the Conversations app and choosing another status. |
You can also manually go online directly from a conversation by clicking on 🟢 Go online.
To remember to log out when you are not available, you can automate the switch from online to offline and vice versa by:
- Setting up operating hours to automatically go online at the beginning of your day and offline at the end. To learn more, check our dedicated section in the article Set up availability for each agent.
- Specifying a delay after which you want to become offline if you forget to log out when you take a break. To learn more, check our dedicated section in the article Set up availability for each agent.
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