The agent does not reply
Replies contain wrong or outdated information
- The change is not published. Customers, the test chat and the sandbox all use the published version. Open the agent: if a banner says it has unpublished changes, click Save and review and then Publish changes. See Test and publish.
- The agent cannot read the right knowledge base. On the agent’s Knowledge tab, switch on the knowledge base that holds the article, then publish. Only published articles are used; see Connect knowledge to agents.
- Product details are stale. Prices and stock come from the connected store; use Resync products under Integrations if the catalog is behind. See Product catalog.
- The conversation is old. An open conversation keeps the version it started with unless you published with New chats and chats in progress. New conversations already use the new version.
- A fact is only in the old instructions. An agent that was switched to Popcorn’s rules no longer reads its instructions; their facts are in a Knowledge article named “Previous instructions of” followed by the agent’s name. Keep that article published until its facts have moved. See Popcorn’s rules and Voice.
- It offers an option or product you no longer sell. The agent only sends products that are active and, with Product quantities on in Settings → General, in stock (Shopify products are never treated as out of stock). Mark the product or variant inactive in your store or under Products, and resync if needed.
The agent replies in the wrong language
- On Popcorn’s rules, check Reply language in the agent’s Voice: Always Arabic or Always English override the customer’s language. With Same as the customer, a greeting, “thanks”, link or product name on its own does not switch the language; a customer can ask for another language by name. See Reply language.
- For Arabic in the wrong style, change Arabic style (Saudi dialect, Gulf dialect or Formal Arabic).
- On custom instructions, the language follows the instructions: state “Reply in the customer’s language” and the dialect you want. See Writing custom instructions.
- The Voice applies only after you publish. Use Preview replies to hear it first.
The agent hands over too often
The agent never hands over
- Hand over to your team is off. The agent can only hand over when it is switched on on the Handoff tab; turn it on, then publish.
- No handover topic or rule describes the situation. Add a topic with Add topic, or the case under When to hand over, for example “when a customer asks for a refund”.
- Hand over to your team after the last retry under Check replies before sending needs Hand over to your team to be on as well; the tick box is disabled and reads Turn on hand over to your team under Handoff to use this. otherwise.
Replies are slow
- Delay replies waits a random number of seconds inside the range you set (1 to 60 seconds) before every reply, to look more human. Turn it off or narrow the range Reply delay, in seconds.
- Check replies before sending retries a reply that scores below the target, up to Maximum retries times. Each retry adds time; the hint in the app warns that more retries can slow replies down.
- After publishing with New chats and chats in progress, open conversations switch version on their next reply; nothing is re-sent, so no delay comes from the publish itself.
Follow-ups are not sent
- Follow up when customers go quiet goes out on WhatsApp only, in conversations the AI is handling, and only while the customer’s last message is less than 24 hours old.
- Popcorn sends a follow-up only when something is still open in the chat. When it decides there is nothing to follow up, the conversation shows a line such as Follow-up skipped: the conversation had ended. That is expected. See Capabilities.
- No follow-up goes out after a template, after a message that failed to deliver, or when you replied from the WhatsApp Business app in the last 24 hours.
Changes are not taking effect
The test chat or the sandbox behaves differently from live
- Both use the published version, so they cannot show unpublished edits (see above).
- On WhatsApp the agent remembers your earlier conversations from the same phone, as it does for a returning customer. Send
/reset-allto start a test with no history. See Start over on WhatsApp. - The test chat opens the agent you are editing. The WhatsApp sandbox always uses the workspace’s default agent, which may be a different agent with different instructions and knowledge. Check the Default badge on the Agents page.
- The sandbox replies that the number is not linked to any organization if your phone number is not registered under Manage sandbox numbers, and that your organization does not have a default agent set up yet if the workspace has no default agent.
- Chats from the test chat on the agent page and from the sandbox are real: they appear in the Inbox and use credits, so what you see there is what a customer would get on the same version. Only the Try your agent chat on Home and Try it as a customer during onboarding are free; they are kept in Test conversations.
Cannot set as default, publish or save
Publishing and rolling back need a role that can edit agents; setting the default agent needs a role that can manage agents. See Team and roles.
Handover notifications do not arrive
- Notifications are only sent on a handover: the agent’s Hand over to your team, Block spam and off-topic chats, or an automatic handover by Popcorn. Assigning a conversation manually does not send one.
- For Slack, Slack alerts for handovers must be on and the panel must show Connected; if it says Slack isn’t connected, so these alerts won’t arrive yet., click Connect Slack (or Reconnect Slack). If you connected Slack after saving a draft, save again before publishing.
- For email, Email alerts for handovers must be on and at least one address must be listed under Recipients.
- Notification settings are part of the agent’s version: after changing them, Save and review and Publish changes.
- A handover in a free test chat (Test conversations) alerts nobody.