--- title: "Take over a live chat from your bot" description: "Let your team step into a live website chat, reply to the customer directly while the bot pauses, then hand the conversation back to the bot." canonical_url: "https://chatthing.ai/docs/manage/human-takeover" last_updated: "2026-09-25" --- # Take over a live chat from your bot **Available on:** Standard, Pro, Enterprise plans. Human takeover lets someone on your team step into a live website chat, reply to the customer themselves while the bot stays quiet, and hand the chat back when they're done. > **Plan and channel** > > Human takeover is available on the **Standard** plan and above, for conversations on the [website widget](https://chatthing.ai/docs/channels/website) (including the bot's own page and iframes). It isn't available on Slack, Discord, WhatsApp, Telegram, email or the API. ## How it works 1. **Escalation (optional).** With the [Talk to a human](https://chatthing.ai/docs/power-ups/talk-to-a-human) power-up, the bot can hand off when a customer asks for a person. It collects their email, emails your team, and marks the conversation **Escalated**. 2. **Takeover.** A team member opens the conversation in **Conversations** and selects **Takeover**. The conversation becomes **Active** and the customer sees that your team member has joined. 3. **Live chat.** Your team member replies directly. The bot doesn't reply while the conversation is taken over. 4. **Hand back.** Your team member selects **Hand back to bot**. The conversation becomes **Resolved**, the customer sees that they've left, and the bot answers any new messages again. You can take over any website conversation, not only escalated ones. ## Before you start - Your team is on the Standard plan or above. - **Who can do this:** [owners, admins and responders](https://chatthing.ai/docs/account/teams#what-each-role-can-do). Viewers can't take over chats. ## Steps ### Turn on human takeover 1. Open your bot and go to **General settings**. 2. Turn on **Allow human takeover of conversations**. 3. Save your settings. ![The "Allow human takeover of conversations" toggle turned on, with a prompt to add the Talk to a human power-up](https://res.cloudinary.com/djyjvrw5u/image/upload/v1773411933/docs/human-takeover-toggle-callout.png) If the bot doesn't have the **Talk to a human** power-up, you'll see a prompt to add it. Select **Add power-up** to add it without leaving settings. We recommend it, so customers can ask for a person and your team gets an email when they do. See [Hand off a chat to a human](https://chatthing.ai/docs/power-ups/talk-to-a-human). You can also turn takeover on from the power-up: if it's off, the **Talk to a human** settings page shows **Enable now** and **Go to settings**. ![The Talk to a human power-up settings with a prompt to turn on human takeover and Enable now and Go to settings buttons](https://res.cloudinary.com/djyjvrw5u/image/upload/v1773412201/docs/talk-to-human-enable-takeover-callout.png) ### Take over a conversation 1. Go to **Conversations**. To find chats waiting for a person, open **Filters** and set **State** to **Escalated**. 2. Select the conversation. 3. Select **Takeover** (or **Takeover conversation** in the **⋮** menu). 4. Type your reply and select **Send**. Only one person can take over a conversation at a time. If someone got there first, you'll see who has it. The conversation shows **Assigned to** with their name. ### Hand the conversation back When you're done, select **Hand back to bot**. The conversation is marked **Resolved** and the bot replies to any new messages. To close an escalated conversation without taking it over, open its **⋮** menu and select **Mark as resolved**. ## What the customer sees When you take over, the customer sees a message that you've joined the conversation, and the widget header shows **Speaking with** and your name. Your messages appear in the chat straight away. When you hand back, they see that you've left. ![The chat widget showing "Speaking with" a team member, a message that they joined the conversation, and their reply](https://res.cloudinary.com/djyjvrw5u/image/upload/v1773416358/docs/conversations-widget-agent-joined.png) ## Check it works 1. Open your bot's website chat in another browser window and send a message. 2. In **Conversations**, select the refresh icon, open the new conversation and select **Takeover**. 3. Send a reply and check it appears in the chat window, with **Speaking with** and your name in the header. 4. Select **Hand back to bot**, send another message from the chat window, and check the bot replies. ## Get notified and connect other tools - **Email:** the [Talk to a human](https://chatthing.ai/docs/power-ups/talk-to-a-human) power-up emails your team when a customer asks for a person. There are no in-app or browser notifications. - **Webhooks:** send conversation events to your own systems, for example a helpdesk or Slack. The events are **Conversation started**, **Conversation escalated**, **Conversation claimed** (someone took over) and **Conversation released** (handed back). See [Webhooks](https://chatthing.ai/docs/developers/webhooks). ## Troubleshooting ### I can't turn on human takeover The toggle is locked below the Standard plan. [Upgrade your plan](https://chatthing.ai/docs/account/billing#change-your-plan). ### The Takeover button doesn't work for a conversation - Takeover only works for website conversations. Other channels show **Takeover unavailable** for that channel. - Check your role. Only Owners, Admins and Responders can take over. - Someone else may already have taken it over. ### New escalated conversations don't appear The list doesn't refresh on its own. Select the refresh icon. Once you've opened a conversation, new messages and state changes appear live. ## Related - [Hand off a chat to a human](https://chatthing.ai/docs/power-ups/talk-to-a-human): Let your bot email your team with the visitor's email and the conversation when someone asks for a person, and mark the chat as escalated. - [Review customer conversations](https://chatthing.ai/docs/manage/conversations): Find, filter and read every conversation your bots have with customers, see AI summaries and user details, and share or download transcripts. - [Webhooks](https://chatthing.ai/docs/developers/webhooks): Send Chat Thing events such as new conversations, escalations and syncs to your own systems, Slack or Discord, and trigger data source syncs from a URL. - [Manage your team and roles](https://chatthing.ai/docs/account/teams): Create a team, invite members, choose the right role (Owner, Admin, Responder or Viewer), remove people, and move bots between teams.