How to Use the HitlChat Inbox

The conversation list (left pane)

The left pane lists your conversations. Filter tabs (each with a live count) split them up:

• All Chats — everything.
• My Chats — conversations assigned to you.
• Bot Chats — chats your Botpress/Voiceflow bot is currently handling.
• Human Req — chats where a customer has asked for a human (the handoff queue).
• Resolved — closed conversations.
• Unassigned — open chats with no agent yet.

Use Search contacts to find a person, the All / Unread toggle to focus on what’s new, and the direction icons to filter by who sent last (agent, bot, customer).

Each row shows the contact’s name, a preview of the last message, the time, an unread badge, and a colour-coded status pill so you can triage at a glance. Empty list? You’ll see “No conversations to display.”

The chat header & “Assigned to” dropdown

Open a conversation and the header gives you three controls:

• Status dropdown (left) — set the conversation’s status (see next section).
• Mark as unread (center) — flag a chat to come back to.
• Assigned to dropdown (right) — who’s handling the chat.

The Assigned to dropdown is the heart of handoff. Its options:

• Bot (shown in gold) — hand the chat back to your Botpress/Voiceflow bot; the bot resumes automated replies.
• Unassigned — release the chat so anyone can pick it up.
• Each team member — assign it to a specific agent (including yourself).

Every change logs a system note in the thread, e.g. “Chat transferred from Bot to Jane”. Assigning to a person pauses the bot and sets the status to In Progress; choosing Bot hands control back and the bot takes over again.

Conversation statuses

The Status dropdown lets you set where a conversation stands. You can choose:

• In Progress — a human is actively handling it (set automatically when an agent takes over).
• Resolved by Bot — the Botpress/Voiceflow bot handled it to completion.
• Resolved by Human — an agent wrapped it up.
• SPAM — unwanted; mark and move on.

You’ll also see system-set statuses in the list that the bot manages on its own:

• Chatting to Bot — the bot is currently in the conversation.
• Human Requested — the customer asked for a person (these surface in the Human Req tab).
• Bot Timed Out / Bot Error — the bot stopped responding or hit a problem — a cue for a human to step in.

The message thread (center pane)

The middle pane is the conversation itself, grouped by date (Today, Yesterday, or the full date). Messages are styled by sender — customer, your agents, and the bot — so it’s easy to follow who said what.

• Delivery ticks on your outgoing WhatsApp messages show sent (one tick), delivered (two ticks) and read (blue). Hover for the exact time, e.g. “Read · Wed, Dec 25 at 2:45 PM”.
• Media & more render inline — images, video, audio, files, a View Location button, and shared contacts.
• Replies show a quoted preview of the message being answered.
• A “new message(s)” separator marks where you left off, and system notes (like transfers) appear centered in the thread.

The reply composer

At the bottom is the reply box (“Type a message...”). Press Enter to send, Shift+Enter for a new line. Around it you’ll find:

• Attach — send images, video, audio or files.
• Emoji picker.
• Quick Messages (chat-bubble icon, “Send a quick text template”) — insert a saved canned reply. See Quick Messages.
• Meta template icon (“Send a Meta template”) — send an approved template (used to reopen a closed 24-hour window). Hidden on QR/WebChat.

The contact info panel

The right pane shows who you’re talking to: their name, number, when the contact was created/updated, and the time since the last message. From here you can also work with the contact’s Tags, custom fields, and Notes — add an internal note (with author and timestamp), edit it, or delete it — so your team shares context on every conversation.

Bot-to-human handoff in practice

Here’s the typical flow with a Botpress or Voiceflow bot:

• The bot handles a chat (status Chatting to Bot, shown under Bot Chats).
• When the customer asks for a person — or a HITL keyword fires — the chat is flagged Human Requested and appears in the Human Req tab.
• An agent opens it and takes over — either by replying (which auto-assigns it and pauses the bot) or by picking their name in the Assigned to dropdown. A system note records “Chat transferred from Bot to {agent}”.
• When done, the agent sets Resolved by Human, or hands control back with Assigned to → Bot.