Overview
Admin Takeover lets a team member pause the AI in one conversation and chat with the visitor themselves. Use it for support escalations, sales questions or sensitive requests. When you’re done, Smart Handoff passes what was said back to the AI so it can continue the same conversation.
Takeover is done from the WPiko AI Chatbot Pro Mobile App by Administrators and Live Agents.
How Takeover Works
Taking Over
Open a conversation in the Mobile App and tap Take Over Conversation. Then:
- AI replies are paused for that conversation, and it’s marked LIVE.
- You become the owner. Only you can reply as a human in it.
- A notice such as “Maria joined the conversation.” is added to the chat.
- The visitor’s chat header shows “Live chat with Maria”.
- Messages during takeover don’t count towards User Limits.
Releasing to AI
Tap Release to AI when you’re finished. Takeover ends, the owner lock is removed, and a notice such as “Maria left the conversation. AI assistant is back.” is added. The AI answers the visitor’s next message.
Automatic Release
If nobody from the team has replied to or opened a taken-over conversation for 12 hours, it goes back to the AI on its own. This happens when the visitor comes back to your site or sends a message, with the same “left the conversation. AI assistant is back.” notice, and Smart Handoff works as usual. A visitor who returns to a remembered conversation days later is never left waiting for a reply. While someone from the team has the conversation open, it never goes back.
This needs WPiko AI Chatbot Pro 2.1.3 or newer. Developers can change the 12 hours with the wpiko_chatbot_pro_takeover_auto_release_hours filter (0 = never).
Smart Handoff
After release, the AI doesn’t send a message on its own. When the visitor writes again, WPiko adds an internal handoff note to the AI request, so the assistant knows what happened during the live chat:
- It uses the visitor’s messages and your replies sent while the AI was paused. “Joined” and “left” notices are ignored.
- Short takeovers: the recent lines are replayed as they are.
- Longer takeovers: a structured summary is created, covering updates the visitor shared, your key replies or promises, open questions and the latest context.
The note is internal memory for the AI and is never shown to the visitor. It lets the assistant avoid repeating questions, keep your promises and continue naturally.
Ownership and Conflicts
- Each live conversation has one owner at a time.
- Other team members can still read it, but can’t reply or take over. They see who is handling it.
- Only the owner can release it back to the AI, unless it goes back automatically after 12 hours without team activity.
Customizing What Visitors See
In WPiko AI Chatbot → Monitor → Mobile App → Customizable text:
| Setting | Default |
|---|---|
| Header text | Live chat with |
| Agent joined text | joined the conversation. |
| Agent left text | left the conversation. AI assistant is back. |
The agent’s display name is added in front of these texts. To change the colors of agent messages, use Chat Widget → Appearance → Style → Advanced Style Options → Live chat takeover. Agents’ names and avatars come from their WordPress profiles. See Sign-In Security and User Profiles.
Recommended Workflow
- Get a push notification for a new message.
- Open the conversation and check the visitor is online (see Presence).
- Read the transcript, then tap Take Over Conversation.
- Reply clearly. The AI uses your replies after the handoff.
- Tap Release to AI when you’re done. If you forget, the conversation goes back to the AI on its own once nobody from the team has replied to or opened it for 12 hours (see Automatic Release).
