Skip to main content
Most conversations are handled end to end by your AI agent. This page covers what you do when one needs a person: taking it over, replying, and moving it through your day. Everything here happens in Inbox.

​
Before you start

  • A connected WhatsApp number or Website Chat. See Channels.
  • For messages outside the 24-hour window and for new outreach, at least one approved template. See Templates.

​
Find a conversation

  • Search looks across All Messages, whatever folder you are in, and matches the customer’s name, phone number, and email, not the text of messages. Clear it to return to your folder.
  • Filters narrows the list by Agent (the teammate who owns the conversation), tag, and a Date Range on Last updated or Created date (switch on Include time for exact times). Click Apply; active filters show as chips you can remove one by one, or Clear them all.
  • The list is sorted by most recent message (Recent). Switch the chip to Priority to sort by tag priority first. See Tags and macros.

​
Take over from the AI

1

Open the conversation

Conversations the AI is handling sit in Assigned to AI. The composer shows Autopilot is On.
2

Click Disable Autopilot

The conversation moves to your Assigned to Me and the AI stops replying. You can only take over once the customer has sent at least one message.
3

Reply

Type in the Message tab and click Send Message.
Assigning a conversation to yourself or a teammate from the assignee menu in the header has the same effect: Autopilot turns off.

​
Assign to a teammate

Click the assignee chip in the header (it shows AI Assistant or the current owner) and pick a teammate. The conversation moves to their Assigned to Me, a system line records who assigned it, and they get a Conversation assignments notification if they have it enabled. To assign several at once, click the avatars in the list to select conversations. A toolbar appears with Assign to teammate; choose a teammate or AI Assistant (and, for the AI, when it should reply) and click Assign. If some could not be assigned, you see Unable to assign all conversations; try again.

​
Hand back to the AI

1

Open the assignee menu and choose AI Assistant

The Assign to your AI Assistant dialog opens.
2

Choose when the AI should reply

Reply now to the customer makes the agent write a follow-up immediately (only on WhatsApp conversations; elsewhere the agent waits for the customer). Reply when the customer sends a message keeps it quiet until the customer writes.
3

Click Assign

The conversation moves to Assigned to AI.

​
Reply

Type in the Message tab and click Send Message, or press Ctrl+Enter (⌘+Enter on a Mac). Hover a message and click Reply to message to quote it; the quote is sent to the customer. The emoji picker and the Macros button sit next to the input. The attachment menu offers: Attachments and product cards are only available in WhatsApp conversations. Product cards need your catalog synced to WhatsApp, and one message carries at most 30 products; see Products in WhatsApp. After sending, the message shows how many cards reached the customer, with a badge for any product that was Not in catalog, Failed to send, or Sent as image instead of a card. Messages from your side show their delivery state: Sent, Delivered, Read, or Failed. A failed message shows the Meta error code; click What can I do? for the explanation and next step. See Troubleshooting.

​
Send a template outside the window

When the composer shows Conversation has expired or Waiting for customer reply, plain messages cannot be sent. Click Send Template:
1

Pick the sender number

In Select Template, choose the Sender Phone Number. Templates belong to a number, so the list changes with it.
2

Choose an approved template

Search by name. If the template has variables, Personalize Template lets you fill them before sending.
3

Decide who continues

Turn on Let your AI agent continue this conversation if the agent should handle the customer’s reply. Leave it off to keep the conversation with your team.
4

Click Start Chat

The template is sent. The customer’s reply reopens the 24-hour window.
Authentication templates cannot be sent to a customer who has not shared their phone number on WhatsApp (their name shows as an @username). Click Ask customer to share number or choose a marketing or utility template instead.

​
Start a new conversation

Click the New conversation button above the list.
  1. In New Chat, pick an Existing Contact by searching, or open New Contact and enter First Name, Last Name, and Phone Number.
  2. Click Select Template and follow the steps above.
The conversation appears in Outreach & Alerts, and in Unassigned unless you let the agent continue it.

​
Add an internal note

Switch the composer to the Comment tab, type, and click Send Comment. Comments appear inline in the conversation, marked as internal, and are never sent to the customer. They work on any conversation, including ones the AI is handling.

​
Mark as waiting or snooze

Both actions are in the header (on small screens, under More actions) and move the conversation to Later.
  • Mark as waiting on customer when the ball is in the customer’s court. The conversation returns to your Assigned to Me as soon as they reply.
  • Snooze conversation to hide it until a set time. In Snooze Conversation, pick 1 minute, 1 hour, 4 hours, Tomorrow at 9:00 AM, 3 days, 1 week, or 1 month and click Snooze. It comes back to Assigned to Me when the time is up, or earlier if the customer replies.
Either action turns Autopilot off and makes you the owner.

​
Close and reopen

Click Close in the header. The conversation moves to Closed and a system line records who closed it. On a closed conversation the same button becomes Reopen, which sends it back to Unassigned (or to Assigned to AI if the AI was on). A customer writing to a closed conversation reopens it automatically.

​
Block a customer

Open the customer info panel and click Block Customer. Enter a Reason and confirm. They will no longer be able to message you, and Popcorn will not send them template messages from the Inbox. Use Unblock Customer in the same place to reverse it.

​
The customer info panel

Click the customer’s name in the header, or Show Info, to open the panel:
  • Conversation Summary with Generate Summary, an AI-written recap of the conversation so far.
  • Conversation details: Status, Language, Assignee, Initiated By, Category, First Message.
  • The customer profile with Email and Last Seen, plus Edit Customer and Block Customer.
  • For closed conversations that the AI Manager scored below 3.5 out of 5, the quality score with Details per dimension. See AI Manager.

​
Understand what the AI did

AI replies show a Sources link when the agent used the Knowledge Base or a tool. Click it to open Message Source and see the articles or tool the answer was based on. System lines in the conversation record every hand-off, close, and reopen, so you can trace how the conversation got to you.

​
Keyboard shortcuts

Open the full list any time with ? or from Keyboard Shortcuts at the bottom of the sidebar. Use Ctrl on Windows and ⌘ on a Mac.