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Amomic-AI

Reply modes

Choose whether the agent answers every WhatsApp customer, steps back when your team replies, or stays silent, per number.

Open WhatsApp settings

A reply mode decides when the agent answers on one WhatsApp number. Incoming messages are saved to your inbox in every mode (except one opt-in setting). The mode only decides whether the agent replies to them.

Mode The agent… Use it when
Always on answers every customer, every time. The agent handles the number and your team steps in through Live support.
Smart answers everyone right away, and steps back from a conversation as soon as someone from your team replies in it. People on your team reply to customers themselves, and the agent should never talk over them.
Off never sends anything. You want the number connected, and its conversations in the inbox, but no agent replies yet.

Who can change it. The setting is on the number's Automation tab, under Channels → WhatsApp. Only owners and admins can save it; the server refuses a member with Administrator access is required. New numbers start on Always on, and so does any number connected before reply modes existed.

Change a number's reply mode #

  1. 1

    Open the number

    Go to Channels → WhatsApp and select the number in the Senders rail. Settings apply only to the selected sender.

  2. 2

    Open the Automation tab

    Under When should the agent reply?, choose Always on, Smart or Off.

  3. 3

    Set the options for that mode

    For Smart, pick Stay quiet for. For Off, decide whether to tick Don't keep these conversations.

  4. 4

    Save

    Choose Save automation. The console confirms "Automation settings saved." The new mode applies to the next message that arrives. The button stays disabled until an agent is chosen under Assigned agent.

Smart on a Phone + Amomic number: your own phone replies count as a team reply.

Always on #

The agent answers every customer, every time. This is the default.

Your team can still step in. When a conversation is taken over in Live support, the agent stays out of it while the session is open. See Human handoff. A team member can also pause the agent for one customer with /stop. See Pause the agent with /stop.

Smart #

The agent answers everyone straight away. As soon as someone from your team replies to a customer, it steps back and leaves that conversation to them. It comes back only if the customer writes again after the quiet period has passed.

What counts as a team reply #

  • A reply typed in Live support, and the "{name} has joined the chat." line sent when someone takes the conversation over.
  • A reply to a ticket, sent from Tickets, that reaches the customer on WhatsApp.
  • On a Phone + Amomic number, anything you send from the WhatsApp Business app on your phone: text, a photo, a voice note, a sticker or a reaction. The console says so beside the setting: "Replies you send from your own phone count too — the agent sees them and steps back." Taking back a reaction doesn't count.

The agent's own replies, and messages your backend sends with the API, don't count.

Stay quiet for #

Stay quiet for sets how long a conversation stays with your team: 10 minutes, 1 hour (the default), 4 hours, 12 hours or 24 hours.

It's measured from your team's last message. Every new team reply restarts it, so a conversation you're actively working stays yours.

A change applies to conversations your team replies to from then on. Shortening it from 24 hours to 10 minutes doesn't release conversations someone is already handling.

While the agent has stepped back #

What happens
Customer's messages Saved to the inbox as normal. Read receipts still go if Mark incoming messages as read is on.
Agent replies None in this conversation.
Typing indicator Not shown, because no reply is coming.
Inbox A banner on the conversation: "{name} is handling this — the agent has stepped back · until {time}", with a count of the customer's unanswered messages and Resume AI now.
Transcript One note on the first unanswered message, such as "Ananya Rao is handling this conversation — the agent is staying quiet".
Other customers Not affected.

The unanswered count matters. If your team member gets pulled away, the customer is waiting on nobody, and the count is how you notice.

When the quiet period ends #

Nothing happens on the clock: the agent doesn't send anything when the period runs out. It waits for the customer.

The next message the customer sends is answered, and the agent briefly acknowledges the gap before helping, rather than carrying on as if it had been there all along. It doesn't answer the messages it skipped. A transcript note records it: "Nobody from your team replied, so the agent picked the conversation back up".

Hand a conversation back early #

You don't have to wait for the quiet period. Four ways hand a conversation back:

From How What the customer sees
Inbox Open the conversation and choose Resume AI now on the banner. The console confirms "The agent has the conversation back." Nothing. The agent answers their next message.
Live support Choose Return to AI on the session. "{name} returned this conversation to the AI."
Live support reply box Type exactly /continue and send. It does the same as Return to AI. The handback line above. /continue itself is never delivered.
Your phone (Phone + Amomic only) Send exactly /continue in the customer's chat. /continue, because WhatsApp delivers it before Amomic-AI hears about it.

After a handback the agent answers the customer's next message without re-introducing itself. It was handed the conversation, so it carries on.

Ending a Live support session any other way is different. Resolve sends "The live support chat has ended.", and a session that lapses because nobody replied ends quietly. Neither hands back, so the quiet period keeps running from your team's last message.

Off #

The agent never sends anything on this number. Messages still arrive in your inbox, and your team can reply from Live support, Tickets or, on a Phone + Amomic number, from the phone.

No typing indicator is shown, because no reply is coming. Read receipts still follow Mark incoming messages as read.

Two things still happen when the agent is off, because they aren't the agent talking:

  • Opt-outs are honoured. A customer who sends STOP is suppressed and gets the confirmation, and START works the same way. See Opt-outs.
  • Ticket replies still reach tickets. A customer's tap on a ticket notification you sent is added to the ticket.

New conversations on an Off number still count toward your plan's conversation allowance, because the messages are received and kept.

Don't keep these conversations #

With Off selected, a second option appears: Don't keep these conversations. Tick it if your team reads this number somewhere else, such as the WhatsApp Business app, and you don't want a copy held in Amomic-AI.

Off, with the option not to keep conversations.

With it on, an incoming message is dropped as soon as it arrives:

  • it isn't stored and doesn't appear in the inbox;
  • it isn't counted toward your conversation allowance;
  • no message.received webhook is sent;
  • no read receipt or typing indicator is sent.

Opt-out and opt-in keywords are still processed. A suppression is a number on a do-not-message list, not the content of a conversation.

The option only exists while the agent is Off. Switching back to Always on or Smart clears it, because the agent can't answer a message it isn't allowed to read.

Make sure someone reads this number

With Don't keep these conversations on, nothing from this number reaches Amomic-AI's inbox, tickets or contacts. If nobody is watching it on a phone, customers are talking to no one.

Assigned agent, read receipts and typing #

The rest of the Automation tab applies in every mode.

Setting Default What it does
Assigned agent The agent chosen at connect "This agent's instructions and knowledge base power WhatsApp replies." Required. Saved changes apply to the next message.
Mark incoming messages as read On Customers see WhatsApp's blue ticks once Amomic-AI receives their message. Off, Amomic-AI sends no read receipt, so customers see their message as delivered but not read. On a Phone + Amomic number, opening the chat on your phone still marks it read.
Show typing indicator On Shows typing… to the customer while the agent prepares a reply, where Meta supports it. It's shown only when the agent will reply: never for a reaction, on an Off number, while the agent has stepped back or is paused with /stop, when your workspace is out of conversation allowance, or while WhatsApp is paused because your plan no longer includes it. Read receipts follow Mark incoming messages as read in all of these cases.

How reply modes work with other controls #

Several controls can keep the agent quiet. They stack: if any one says "stay quiet", the agent does.

Control Scope Lasts Set by
Reply mode Off Every customer on one number Until you change it Automation tab
Smart stepping back One customer on one number The quiet period, or until handed back A team reply
/stop One customer on one number Until /continue or Resume AI now Your phone, in any mode. See Pause the agent.
Let the agent reply off One customer on every number Until switched back on The contact, in Contacts. See Pause a customer permanently.
Live support session One conversation Until the session ends Taking the conversation over. See Human handoff.

Resume AI now and /continue clear a Smart step-back and a /stop pause. They don't change the reply mode, and they don't change a contact's Let the agent reply switch.

Troubleshooting #

Next #

Pause the agent with /stop

Hold the agent off one customer from your phone, in any mode.

Human handoff

Take a conversation over from the console and reply as a person.

Set up WhatsApp

Connect a number and choose whether it stays on the WhatsApp Business app.