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The Inbox shows your customer chats from WhatsApp, onsite chat and voice calls in one list. Open it from Inbox in the sidebar, or go to https://ai.textyess.com/inbox. The Inbox appears in the sidebar when your plan includes WhatsApp, onsite chat or voice. The AI answers your chats. In the Inbox you read every chat, take over from the AI, and reply yourself. The list updates by itself, so you do not need to reload the page.

Inbox views: Open, Assigned to me, Needs attention, Closed

The left column of the Inbox has four views. Each view shows how many chats it holds.
  • Open: every chat that is not closed. This includes the chats in Needs attention.
  • Assigned to me: the open WhatsApp chats that are assigned to you.
  • Needs attention: the chats that wait for a person on your team. Each row shows a Needs attention label.
  • Closed: the chats that your team closed.
Under Channels, the WhatsApp, Onsite and Voice rows show all the chats of one channel, open and closed. Chats with a blocked contact do not show in these views. On a phone, the views are the chips Open, Mine, Needs attention and Closed.

What puts a chat in Needs attention

A WhatsApp chat moves to Needs attention in the Inbox when:
  • The AI hands the chat to your team, for example because the customer asks for a person.
  • You take over the chat from the AI.
  • The customer writes while the AI is off in that chat, or while your WhatsApp AI schedule has the AI off.
  • The AI cannot answer, for example because your plan has no AI replies left.
  • The customer writes in a closed chat. The chat reopens.
  • In an open chat, you click the arrow next to Close and choose Needs attention.
An onsite chat moves to Needs attention when the onsite agent hands it to your team. Voice calls never go to Needs attention. A WhatsApp chat leaves Needs attention when you reply from the Inbox, or when you close it. After your reply, the chat stays in Open.

Channels in the Inbox: WhatsApp, onsite chat and voice calls

The Inbox shows a channel only when your plan includes it.
  • WhatsApp: chats on your WhatsApp number. You can reply, take over from the AI, assign, tag and close them.
  • Onsite: chats with the visitors of your website. They are read-only: the AI answers them, and you cannot reply from the Inbox. You can close them.
  • Voice: calls that your voice agent answered. You see the transcript and the result, Successful or Escalated.
If your plan has no channel, the Inbox shows Connect a channel to use the inbox. If WhatsApp is in your plan but not connected, a banner shows Connect now. Email and Instagram messages do not appear in the Inbox.

Search the Inbox for a customer or a message

Type in Search messages at the top of the chat list in the Inbox. To go to the field, press /. The search finds a customer by name or phone number. It also finds words in the messages of a chat, not only in the last message. A name matches from its start: “ross” finds Rossi. To find one specific message, click Advanced in the search field:
  1. Type the words in Message contains.
  2. Choose the Sender: Anyone, Customer or Your team. Your team includes the AI, your teammates, campaigns and automations.
  3. Choose the Message date: Any time, or from Last 24 hours to Last 7 days.
  4. Click Search.
When the search matches a message, the chat row shows that message. Advanced search does not include voice calls.

Filter chats in the Inbox

Click Filter at the top of the chat list in the Inbox. You can filter by:
  • Status: Human controlled, AI controlled, Inbound, Outbound or Blocked. Managed (closed chats) is available in the Channels rows only.
  • Channel, when your plan has more than one channel.
  • Assignee, Tags, Campaign and Automations.
  • Ads, when customers started chats from your Meta ads.
  • Last activity, a date range.
A filter narrows the view you are in. For example, to find every open chat with a tag, select Open and then filter by Tags. Tags, Campaign, Automations and Ads show WhatsApp chats only.

Why Inbox chats are not in date order

By default, the Inbox sorts chats by Last activity. The chat with the newest activity comes first. A message from anyone counts: the customer, the AI, your team, a campaign or an automation. For this reason, a campaign moves every chat it reaches to the top, also when the customer did not write. To change the order, click the sort button (two arrows) next to Filter:
  • Last received: the newest customer message first. Use it to see chats in the order your customers wrote.
  • Waiting since: the chats that wait longest for a person come first.
  • Under Direction, choose Newest first or Oldest first.
Last received and Waiting since show WhatsApp chats only. The Inbox remembers your sort for each view in this browser.

Take over a chat from the AI

  1. Open the WhatsApp chat in the Inbox.
  2. Above the reply box, find the bar AI is handling this conversation.
  3. Click the switch in this bar.
The bar now shows You’re handling this conversation, and you can type your reply. When you take over:
  • The chat moves to Needs attention, and its row shows AI off.
  • The AI does not answer this customer until the AI is on again.
  • WhatsApp marketing campaigns and automations do not reach this customer while you handle the chat, for up to 48 hours. Messages that are not marketing still go out.
The switch works for this chat only. To turn the AI off for all WhatsApp chats, or on a timetable, use WhatsApp AI schedule in Settings → Organization.

Turn the AI back on in a chat

Open the chat in the Inbox and click the switch in the bar above the reply box. The bar shows AI is handling this conversation again. Turning the AI on does not close the chat and does not move it to another view. After you take over, or after the AI hands a chat to your team, the AI comes back by itself after 48 hours. The bar shows the time left, for example hands back to AI in 5h. If the chat is in Needs attention at that moment, the AI stays off until you turn it on. Sometimes the AI turns off for another reason. For example, a message arrives while your WhatsApp AI schedule has the AI off. Then the AI stays off in that chat until you turn it on with the switch.

Why the AI did not reply in a chat

Open the WhatsApp chat in the Inbox and look at what it shows.
  • The row shows AI off: the AI is off in this chat. Someone took over, the AI handed the chat to your team, or the message arrived while your WhatsApp AI schedule had the AI off. Click the switch above the reply box to turn the AI on.
  • The reply box shows Contact is blocked.: the AI does not answer a blocked contact.
  • Your plan has no AI replies left: the chat goes to Needs attention without an AI reply.
  • An automation sent its own message: when an automation waits for the customer’s reply, or the message starts an automation, the automation answers instead of the AI.
Onsite chats and voice calls follow the settings of your onsite agent and voice agent.

Reply to a customer in the Inbox

  1. Open the WhatsApp chat in the Inbox.
  2. If the bar shows AI is handling this conversation, click the switch to take over. The reply box stays locked until you take over.
  3. Type your message and press Enter.
Inside the 24-hour window, a reply can have up to 4,096 characters. To send a file, click the paperclip, or drag the file into the reply box. You can send an image, a PDF or a TXT file. Your reply moves the chat out of Needs attention. The chat stays in Open until you close it. If the reply box shows Replies are paused, see above, read the banner at the top of the Inbox. It tells you when your team can reply again.

Reply after the 24-hour window closes

WhatsApp allows a free-form reply only within 24 hours after the customer’s last message. After that, the reply box in the Inbox shows Type a message — we’ll submit it to Meta as a template.
  1. Type your reply and press Enter.
  2. In Send as outbound message, click Send message.
  3. TextYess submits your text to Meta as a template. Until Meta approves it, the message shows an icon: Waiting for Meta to approve this message. This usually takes a few minutes and can take up to 24 hours.
  4. After approval, the message goes to the customer by itself.
Outside the window, a reply can have up to 1,024 characters, and you can attach only a photo or a PDF. Each of these replies uses one outbound message. If you have none left, you see Outbound messages required. On plans with Conversation Replies, it uses one Conversation Reply instead. If Meta rejects the text, the message shows Template rejected by Meta. Write a different message and send it again.

Saved replies: send a WhatsApp template from the Inbox

The Inbox has no saved replies. To reuse a message, create a WhatsApp template in Settings → WhatsApp → WhatsApp Templates (https://ai.textyess.com/organization-settings/templates). See WhatsApp templates. After Meta approves the template, send it from a chat:
  1. Open the chat in the Inbox and take over from the AI.
  2. Click the template button next to the paperclip in the reply box.
  3. Choose the template and fill in all its variables.
  4. Click Send Template.
An approved template goes out at once, also outside the 24-hour window. The list shows approved templates only.

Start a new WhatsApp chat from the Inbox

  1. In the Inbox, click the + button at the bottom right of the chat list.
  2. Search a contact, or type a phone number with the country code, for example +39 347 1234567.
  3. Click the contact, or click Start chat with and the number.
  4. Click Send template. The new chat opens.
  5. Send an approved template from the template button in the reply box.
WhatsApp requires that your first message to a customer is an approved template. The + button shows when your WhatsApp number is connected. If the contact already has a chat, TextYess opens that chat.

Mark chats as read or unread in the Inbox

The Inbox has no read or unread state. You cannot mark a chat as read or unread, one at a time or in bulk. To clear your queue, close the chats that you handled. Closed chats leave Open, Assigned to me and Needs attention. You can close up to 50 WhatsApp chats at once. See “Close or reopen many chats at once” on this page.

Close or reopen many chats at once

  1. In the Inbox list, point at the round WhatsApp icon at the left of a chat. A checkbox appears. Click it. You can also press X on the selected chat.
  2. To select a range, hold Shift and click the checkbox of another chat.
  3. In the bar at the bottom of the list, click Close. If all the selected chats are closed, the button is Reopen.
You can select up to 50 chats at a time, and only WhatsApp chats. Press E to apply the action, or Esc to clear the selection. Close and Reopen are the only bulk actions in the Inbox.

Assign a chat to a teammate

  1. Open the WhatsApp chat in the Inbox.
  2. Click the assignee button in the chat header (Assign to a teammate), or press A.
  3. Search the teammate and click the name. To remove the assignee, choose Unassigned.
You can also right-click a chat in the list, or click its ⋯ button, and choose Assign. A chat has one assignee: a new choice replaces the current one. The list shows the people in Settings → Team. The chat appears in Assigned to me for that teammate. The teammate gets an email for each new customer message in that chat.

Close a chat and reopen it

Closing a chat marks it as done. In the Inbox, open the chat and click Close in the header, or press E. A Closed message with Undo shows for a few seconds. The chat moves to Closed. Closing a chat does not turn off the AI. To reopen a closed chat, open it and click Reopen. A reopened chat goes to Needs attention. A chat also reopens by itself when the customer writes again. You can also right-click a chat in the list and choose Close or Reopen. For onsite chats, use this menu. After you close a chat, it stays in the list for a few seconds with Leaving in, then leaves the view.

Ticket types in the Inbox

A ticket type names the customer’s problem in a WhatsApp chat, for example “Size change”. A chat has one ticket type at a time. To set it, open the chat in the Inbox and click Set type in the header. Choose a type. If the chat already has a type, click the type to change it. A new choice replaces the current one. In Needs attention, you can also click Set type on the chat row. When chats in Needs attention have open tickets, the left column shows a Ticket types section. It lists each type with a count. Click a type to see those chats. A ticket closes when you close the chat. It also closes by itself in two cases. First: someone answered, the chat left Needs attention, and 48 hours passed with no new message. Second: 14 days passed with no activity. A reply alone does not close the ticket.

Set up ticket types in Settings

Open Settings → Ticket types (https://ai.textyess.com/organization-settings/ticket-types). Choose how the list starts:
  • Starter pack: a ready-made fashion set.
  • Suggest from inbox: TextYess reads your recent Needs attention chats and builds 5 to 8 types. This replaces your current list.
To create a type yourself, click Add type. Enter a Name and, if you want, What the customer is asking for. Then click Add type in the form. Use the switch on a type to turn it off. A type that is off does not show in Set type. Drag a type to change the order. Click Remove to remove a type. Past tickets keep a removed type.

Block or unblock a customer’s number

  1. Open the WhatsApp chat in the Inbox.
  2. Click the customer’s name in the chat header to open the contact details.
  3. Click the block icon (Block contact) next to the name.
  4. Click Block to confirm.
A blocked contact gets no more messages from you: no campaigns, no automations and no AI replies. The chat leaves the Inbox views. To find it, use Filter, then Status, then Blocked. To unblock, open the contact details again and click the block icon (Unblock contact). On a phone, use the menu in the chat header: Block contact or Unblock contact.

Delete a conversation

The Inbox has no button to delete a chat. Deleting a contact in Contacts does not delete the chat. An owner or admin of your organization can delete a chat with the TextYess API. This deletes the conversation, its messages and files, and the contact it belongs to. You cannot undo it. See Delete a conversation.

See the messages your campaigns and automations sent

Messages from your campaigns and automations appear in each customer’s chat in the Inbox. A campaign message also shows a Campaign sent line in the chat. If the customer had no chat, the campaign or automation creates one. To list the chats that got a message:
  1. Click Filter at the top of the chat list.
  2. Choose Campaign and pick a campaign, or choose Automations and pick an automation.
The Automations filter lists the automations that sent at least one message. The filter works inside the view you are in. To include closed chats, select the WhatsApp row under Channels first.

Add tags and notes to a chat

To tag a WhatsApp chat, open it in the Inbox and click Add tag in the header, or press T. Search a tag and click it. To make a new tag, type its name and click Create with the name. To list the chats with a tag, use Filter, then Tags. To add a note for your team, click the customer’s name in the chat header to open the contact details. Click + next to Notes, write up to 5,000 characters, and save. The customer does not see notes.

Inbox keyboard shortcuts

Press ? in the Inbox to see all the shortcuts.
  • J or ↓: next chat. K or ↑: previous chat.
  • /: go to the search field.
  • E: close or reopen the chat.
  • T: add a tag. A: assign the chat.
  • X: select the chat. Shift and click: select a range. Esc: clear the selection.
Shortcuts do not work while you type in the reply box.

Download your chats as a file

  1. Open Settings → Organization (https://ai.textyess.com/organization-settings).
  2. Go to Export conversations.
  3. Choose a Date range of up to 90 days.
  4. Choose the channels to include: WhatsApp, Onsite or Voice.
  5. Click Download CSV.
The file includes customer messages, AI replies and automation messages.

Get an alert when a chat needs you

When the AI hands a chat to your team and the Inbox is open on your screen, a pop-up shows A conversation needs you. Click Open to go to the chat. When you are not in the Inbox, TextYess can email you. Turn on Human support request in Settings → Account → Notifications. See Notifications.