Human Handoff
Configure keyword-based handoff to route conversations to your team when needed.
How Handoff Works
When a customer uses specific keywords in their message, Waslo automatically:
- Pauses the AI agent for that conversation
- Marks the lead as "Needs Attention"
- Sends a configured handoff message to the customer
- Notifies your team via Email, WhatsApp, or Telegram (if configured)
- Shows the lead in the Needs Attention widget on your dashboard
Setting Up Handoff
- Go to AI Agent → Human Handoff
- Toggle Enable Handoff
- Add keywords that should trigger a handoff (e.g., "speak to someone", "human", "agent", "manager")
- Customize the handoff message the customer receives
Example Handoff Message
"I'm connecting you with a team member who can help you further. They'll be with you shortly!"
Handoff Keywords
Add keywords that indicate a customer wants to speak to a human. Common examples:
- "speak to someone"
- "human"
- "agent"
- "manager"
- "real person"
- "help me"
- "complaint"
The default list on a new workspace is human, agent, بشر, موظف — add or remove keywords for your own scripts and languages.
How keywords are matched
Keywords match as whole words, not as a raw substring — so a short keyword no longer fires inside an unrelated word. A few deliberate exceptions keep real-world phrasing working:
- Latin-script keywords of 4+ letters also match common Spanish/Portuguese/Turkish inflected forms. The keyword "human" also matches "humano"; "agent" also matches "agente".
- Arabic-script keywords also match when wrapped in a small set of Arabic clitics: the definite article "ال" and its combined forms ("وال", "بال", "فال", "كال", "لل"), the standalone letters "و", "ف", "ب", "ل", and the masculine plural endings "ين"/"ون". So the keyword "موظف" (employee) also matches "الموظف" (the employee) and "الموظفين" (the employees).
- Tip: this doesn't extend to the feminine endings ة/ى/ات — "موظف" will not match "موظفة" (a female employee). If you want that caught too, add "موظفة" as its own keyword.
- Chinese, Japanese, and Thai keywords still match as a plain substring, since these scripts don't use spaces between words — so "转人工" still matches anywhere inside a longer message.
Per-Number Handoff
You can configure different handoff keywords and messages per WhatsApp number using the Context Selector at the top of AI Agent → Human Handoff. Per-channel handoff configuration (Telegram, Instagram, etc.) is on the roadmap — for now those channels use the org default.
Saving your handoff settings for a specific WhatsApp number or channel only touches the handoff fields on that page — it no longer overwrites that same number's or channel's personality or classification settings, and saving those pages no longer erases handoff settings either. Each settings page saves independently.
Replying yourself pauses the agent
When you answer a customer yourself, the agent steps back for that customer so the two of you never reply over each other. This works wherever you can type outside Waslo:
| Where you replied | Pauses the agent |
|---|---|
| The Waslo inbox | Yes |
| Your phone, on a Waslo QR number | Yes |
| The WhatsApp Business app, on an official QR number | Yes — the app's automatic greeting and away messages don't |
| Meta Business Suite or the Messenger app | Yes |
| The Instagram app | Yes |
| Outlook, in a thread the agent is handling | Yes (checked every minute) |
Your reply also appears in the Waslo thread, so the history stays complete. The lead panel shows why the agent paused.
When two agents talk to each other
If your number ends up chatting with another automated agent, the two could reply to each other forever. Waslo stops that: when the agent keeps replying to the same sender — 3 replies within 10 minutes if the other side is itself a number connected to Waslo, or 12 replies within 10 minutes for anyone else — it pauses that conversation and marks it Needs Attention with the reason. Resume it like any other pause once you've checked it. This applies to WhatsApp QR and WhatsApp Cloud numbers.
Resuming AI
After handling a lead personally:
- Go to the Leads page
- Find the lead (it will show "Handoff" status)
- Click the Resume AI button
- The AI will start responding to new messages again
You can also resume AI from the Needs Attention widget on the dashboard.
Telegram Notifications
Get instant notifications when a handoff is triggered:
- Go to Integrations → Telegram
- Set up your Telegram bot and chat ID
- Enable Notify on Handoff
You'll receive a Telegram message with the lead's name, phone number, and the message that triggered the handoff.