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Customers always talk to the published version of an agent. Everything you change on the agent page, from instructions to connected numbers, is saved as a draft first, so you can review the exact differences and decide which conversations get the update. Every publish and rollback is kept in the version history.

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How drafts and versions work

  • Editing anything shows a banner such as 2 unpublished changes. Live conversations use the published version. with Discard, and the header button becomes Save and review. Discard returns the page to the last saved state. On a phone, Save and review and Discard are pinned across the top of the page.
  • Save and review checks your fields (a field to fix opens its tab), saves your changes to the agent, creates a draft and opens the Publish changes? dialog. There is one draft per agent; saving again updates it. If you close the dialog without publishing, the header button becomes Publish changes.
  • The first time you save an agent that has no versions yet, Popcorn also records the agent as it was before your edits as a published version with the note Initial published version, so you always have something to roll back to.
  • Until you publish, the published version keeps answering customers. The page tells you where you are: This agent isn’t published yet. Publish it to start answering customers., the unpublished-changes banner above, or, once nothing is waiting, “New chats use v4, published Sep 12, 2026.”
  • Publishing needs a role that can edit agents.

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Try the agent in the test chat

1

Open the test chat

On the agent page, from 1280 pixels wide, the Test your agent panel sits beside the settings. On a narrower screen, click Test agent in the header (Test on a phone) to open it in a dialog titled Test followed by the agent’s name.
2

Chat as a customer

Type a message and send it. Under each reply, a line shows what the agent did: Searched the knowledge base or Used followed by the tool’s name. A reply that has just arrived shows that line once the conversation is opened again. When the agent hands over, the chat shows Handed to your team.
3

Start over when needed

Start a new conversation asks Start a new conversation?; click Start over to begin a fresh one. Open in new tab opens the same chat in a tab.
The test chat talks to the published version, exactly like your customers. Edits you have saved but not published are not reflected. To try a change, publish it, then start a new conversation so the next message starts on the new version. (A brand-new agent has no published version until its first save on the agent page; until then the test chat uses the settings it was created with.) Test conversations are real conversations: they appear in your Inbox and each AI reply uses one credit like any other. If the workspace is out of credits, the chat shows Your agent stopped replying to customers with Top up credits (or Choose a plan on the free plan).

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The free test chat on Home

While your workspace has no WhatsApp number connected and no customer conversations yet, Home shows your agent’s setup with a Try your agent panel (“Ask what a customer would. Nothing is sent to WhatsApp.”). The same chat appears during onboarding as Try it as a customer. Chats there are free: they use no credit, they are kept in Test conversations (under More folders in the Inbox) so reports and lead counts leave them out, and a handover in them alerts nobody. Chats started from the agent page, the Test agent dialog or the sandbox are not free tests.

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Try the agent on WhatsApp with the sandbox

The sandbox is a shared Popcorn test number, useful before you connect your own WhatsApp number. It is answered by your workspace’s default agent.
1

Open the sandbox

On the agent’s Channels tab, click Manage sandbox numbers. The Test on WhatsApp dialog (“Chat with your agent from your own phone before customers do.”) opens.
2

Register your phone

Under 1. Add the phone you’ll test from, enter your WhatsApp number with the country code under Your phone number and click Add number. You see Number added (with Undo), and the number is listed as No messages yet until it sends its first message, then Active. If it fails, check the number: a phone can test with only one Popcorn AI account.
3

Message the test number

Under 2. Message the test number, scan the QR code with your phone or click Open WhatsApp, and send the pre-filled message. The default agent replies on WhatsApp; the conversation appears in your Inbox and uses credits like a live conversation. Remove a number with the button next to it (Remove followed by the number).
If your number is not registered, the sandbox replies that it is not linked to any organization. If the workspace has no default agent, it replies that your organization does not have a default agent set up yet; choose one from the Agents page with Set as default.

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Publish changes

1

Save and open the review

Click Save and review (or Publish changes in the header when a draft already exists). The Publish changes? dialog opens (“Customers get these changes once you publish.”).
2

Check what changed

What changed lists the areas that differ from the published version, with a count: Name and instructions, Messaging and notification settings, Capabilities, tools and knowledge, and Connected WhatsApp numbers. Click Show before and after to compare Before and After field by field. For an agent with nothing published, the dialog says “Nothing is published yet, so this will be the first version.”
3

Choose who gets the update

Under Who gets this update, the default is New chats only. Choose New chats and chats in progress to include chats that are already running (see the table below).
4

Add a note and publish

Optionally write a Note about this version (optional); it appears in the version history so your team knows what changed. Click Publish changes. You see Changes published together with how many open chats were updated.

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What the publish options mean

Two more things happen at publish time:
  • Numbers you switched off move their open conversations to the default agent immediately, whatever you chose above. The dialog warns you: “The agent stops answering on these N numbers, and their open chats move to your default agent right away”, and lists them.
  • Any other draft of this agent is archived, so only the version you just published can be rolled back to.

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Version history

Click Version history in the agent header to open Versions (“Every saved and published version of this agent, and how each one did.”). Each entry shows the version number, a status of Published, Draft or Archived, the publish or save date and time, the note you wrote (or No note), and five figures: The live version is marked Customers are on this version; archived versions have a Roll back button.

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Roll back to an earlier version

1

Pick the version

In Versions, click Roll back next to the version you want. The Roll back to vN? dialog opens: “vN becomes the published version again. Your current version stays in the history.”
2

Review what it changes

What changes back compares the current version with After rollback for every area that differs. If you had unsaved changes on the page, the dialog warns that they will be discarded.
3

Choose who gets it

Under Who gets this version, the default is New chats only. Choose New chats and chats in progress to switch open AI conversations from their next reply, and Also include chats a teammate is handling to extend that to conversations a teammate has taken over.
4

Give a reason

Why are you rolling back? is required (Add a reason to roll back.). Your team sees it in the version history.
5

Confirm

Click Roll back to vN. You see Rolled back to vN.
A rollback does not reuse the old version number: Popcorn creates a new published version with the old version’s contents and your reason as its note, archives the version that was live, and discards any unpublished draft.

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When publishing or rolling back fails