---
title: "Escalate to Human"
description: "Hand a conversation from your agent to your team through live chat or a Helpdesk ticket, when a visitor asks or when your conditions are met."
---

:::note[Plan]
Available on the **Standard** and **Pro** plans. When you enable **Escalate to Human**, it uses one of your agent's **Actions & Widgets per agent** slots.
:::

**Escalate to Human** connects a visitor with a teammate. It's how [human handoff](/docs/human-handoff) is set up for an agent. Only team **Owners** and **Admins** can configure it.

To add it, go to **Build** > **Actions**, select **Create action**, and choose **Escalate to Human**.

## Escalation method

Choose how a visitor reaches your team:

| Method | What happens |
| --- | --- |
| **Live chat** | The AI stops replying and a teammate takes over the conversation. If nobody claims the request in time, it can become a ticket instead. |
| **Create ticket** | A Helpdesk ticket is created and the AI keeps responding. Your team replies later, and the visitor gets the reply by email. |

Anonymous visitors on the web widget or Public Chat verify their email with a one-time code before a ticket is created, so your team can reach them. Visitors who are already [identified](/docs/leads-and-contacts/customer-identification) with an email skip that step.

## Live chat settings

- **Show live chat button**: lets visitors ask for a teammate at any time.
- **Button label**: the button text. Default: "Talk to a person".
- **Waiting message**: shown until a teammate joins. Default: "A teammate will join this conversation shortly."
- **Allow AI to request live chat**: the agent escalates on its own when the conversation matches the condition under **When to escalate**.
- **Create a ticket if nobody claims the request**: **After 2 minutes**, **After 5 minutes** (default), **After 10 minutes**, **After 15 minutes**, or **Keep waiting**.

### When nobody claims a live chat request

If no teammate claims a live chat request within the time you chose, it becomes a ticket:

- The AI takes over again, so the visitor isn't left waiting.
- The visitor sees "No teammate was available, so this became a support request." and is told the team will reply by email.
- Anonymous visitors are asked to verify their email first.
- The ticket stays in the [Helpdesk](/docs/human-handoff/tickets) for your team.

This applies to the web widget and Public Chat. WhatsApp requests keep waiting, since WhatsApp replies already reach the customer.

## Ticket settings

- **Confirmation message**: shown after a ticket is created. Default: "I've sent this conversation to the team for follow-up."

## When to escalate

Describe the situations where the agent should bring in your team. If you leave the default text, it follows the escalation method you chose:

| Method | Default condition |
| --- | --- |
| **Live chat** | Escalate when the visitor clearly asks for a human teammate to take over or join the conversation. |
| **Create ticket** | Create a ticket when the visitor asks for a ticket or support case, reports a problem the agent can't solve (such as errors, syncing issues, or account problems), or asks the team to follow up. |

Text you write yourself is never changed. For example:

> Escalate when the visitor explicitly asks for a human teammate, or when they report a billing problem you can't solve.

## Notifications

- **Email the team about new tickets**: Owners, Admins, and Editors get an email when a new Helpdesk ticket is opened.

Visitors with an email get their own emails about a ticket. See [Emails to visitors](/docs/human-handoff/tickets#emails-to-visitors).

For Slack alerts, see [Slack Notifications](/docs/actions/slack-notifications).

## Channels

Escalate to Human can run on the **Web widget**, **Public Chat**, and **WhatsApp**. It doesn't run in [API conversations](/docs/developers/agents-and-chat), so conversations started through the API can't be handed to your team. See [Where actions run](/docs/actions#where-actions-run).

## See also

- [Live Support](/docs/human-handoff/live-support)
- [Tickets](/docs/human-handoff/tickets)
- [Troubleshooting human handoff and tickets](/docs/troubleshooting/human-handoff-and-tickets)