# Reply modes

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

Source: https://docs.amomic.in/channels/whatsapp-reply-modes

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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

::: steps
::: step Open the number
Go to **Channels → WhatsApp** and select the number in the **Senders** rail. Settings apply only to the selected sender.
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::: step Open the Automation tab
Under **When should the agent reply?**, choose **Always on**, **Smart** or **Off**.
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::: step Set the options for that mode
For **Smart**, pick **Stay quiet for**. For **Off**, decide whether to tick **Don't keep these conversations**.
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::: step 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**.
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![The Automation tab for +91 99011 47362 with Smart selected, the note that replies sent from your own phone count too, Stay quiet for set to 1 hour, and the /continue hint](https://docs.amomic.in/screens/whatsapp/reply-modes-smart.light.webp)

*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](/console/human-handoff). A team member can also pause the agent for one customer with `/stop`. See [Pause the agent with /stop](/channels/whatsapp-pause).

## 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](/channels/whatsapp#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.

![The reply mode options with Off selected, its description reading The agent never sends anything, and these conversations are not kept, and Don't keep these conversations ticked](https://docs.amomic.in/screens/whatsapp/reply-modes-off.light.webp)

*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](/webhooks/events) 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.

::: warning 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.
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## 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](/channels/whatsapp-pause). |
| **Let the agent reply** off | One customer on every number | Until switched back on | The contact, in **Contacts**. See [Pause a customer permanently](/channels/whatsapp-pause#pause-a-customer-permanently). |
| Live support session | One conversation | Until the session ends | Taking the conversation over. See [Human handoff](/console/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

::: details The agent replied while I was talking to the customer
Check the mode is **Smart**, and saved. In **Always on**, team replies don't stop the agent unless the conversation is in a Live support session. Also check the reply came from a place that counts: phone replies only count on a **Phone + Amomic** number.
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::: details The agent stayed quiet long after we finished
The quiet period runs from your team's last message, and the agent only comes back when the customer writes again. Use **Resume AI now** in the inbox to hand back at once.
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::: details A customer is waiting and nobody answered
Open the conversation in the inbox. The banner counts the messages that weren't answered. Reply, or choose **Resume AI now**. The agent won't answer the messages it skipped, only the next one, so reply to what they asked first.
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::: details Messages from this number don't appear in the inbox
The number is **Off** with **Don't keep these conversations** on. Untick it, or pick another mode, and save. Messages that arrived while it was on were never stored and can't be recovered.
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## Next

::: cards

::: card Pause the agent with /stop
[Hold the agent off one customer](/channels/whatsapp-pause) from your phone, in any mode.
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::: card Human handoff
[Take a conversation over](/console/human-handoff) from the console and reply as a person.
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::: card Set up WhatsApp
[Connect a number](/channels/whatsapp) and choose whether it stays on the WhatsApp Business app.
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