Pause the agent with /stop

You're in a customer's chat on your phone and want to handle it yourself. Send /stop in that chat and the agent stops replying to that customer. It stays stopped until you send /continue in the same chat, or someone chooses Resume AI now in the inbox.

There's no timer and no setting to change, it works in every reply mode, and the agent keeps working for every other customer.

To keep the agent away from someone for good, use the contact's Let the agent reply switch instead. See Pause a customer permanently.

Before you start #

/stop and /continue are typed on your own phone, in the WhatsApp Business app. That only works when your number is connected to Amomic-AI and still used in the WhatsApp Business app: a Phone + Amomic number. See Choose how the number connects.

If your team replies from the console, they don't need /stop. Taking a conversation over in Live support keeps the agent out while the session is open. See Human handoff.

Pause the agent #

Hand the chat back #

Any of these ends the pause:

The agent picks the conversation back up from the customer's next message. It doesn't reply to messages it skipped while paused, and it doesn't re-introduce itself.

If the conversation is also open in Live support, returning it with Return to AI, or sending /continue in the Live support reply box, ends the pause too. The customer then sees "{name} returned this conversation to the AI."

What happens while it's paused #

The pause works the same whichever reply mode the number uses, Always on or Smart. When the number is Off, the agent never replies anyway.

Things to know #

• The whole message must be the command. /stop on its own pauses the agent. "Please /stop by the shop" is just a reply. A photo whose caption is exactly /stop also counts.
• "STOP" without the slash is different. It's the customer's opt-out word, and it stops every message to them, including your team's. /stop comes from you and only pauses the agent.
• A reply already being written may still arrive. If the agent was mid-answer when you sent /stop, that answer can still be delivered. Nothing after it will be.
• It's per chat and per number. Pausing a customer on one of your WhatsApp numbers doesn't pause them on another.
• It doesn't expire. Unlike Smart mode's quiet period, a pause lasts until someone hands back. Watch the unanswered count on the inbox banner.

Pause a customer permanently #

Some customers should only ever hear from a person: a key account, someone with a complaint in progress, a family member who uses the business number. For them, switch the agent off on the contact.

What the switch does and doesn't do:

It matches the customer by phone number, and takes effect within about ten seconds of the change. Only owners and admins can change it; members see the setting but no switch.

The switch is a business decision, not the customer's. It's separate from the customer's own consent (Allowed / Opted out / Not recorded): an opt-out stops every message, while this stops only the agent. See Contacts and customer memory.

Next #