Live Chat — Request a Person

Live Chat lets a visitor ask for a person from inside the conversation. It works in one of two ways:

• By email (the default). Your team gets an email with a link to the conversation, and the assistant keeps answering.
• Request a person. The assistant pauses, your dashboard alerts you, and the visitor waits for you to join. If nobody joins in time, the assistant takes over again.

The two ways side by side

	By email (default)	Request a person
When visitors can ask	Once the conversation has started	From the moment the chat opens
What happens	Your recipients get an email; the assistant keeps answering	The assistant pauses; the dashboard alerts you; the visitor waits for you to Join
If no admin is online	Not applicable	The request is emailed and the assistant keeps answering
How to turn it on	Always on while the bell is shown	Settings > Live Chat > Request a person

Before you start

Emails are only delivered if a recipient is configured.

1. Open your domain, then go to Settings > Email.

2. Open the CC Rules tab.
3. Add at least one recipient email, and make sure the rule is Active.

You can add an optional label such as Support, Sales, or Finance. It controls where emails go; it does not change how the AI responds.

For Request a person, someone must be online. An admin counts as online while a Privas dashboard tab is open and visible on their screen, on any dashboard page, and for about a minute and a half after. Only the domain owner and Domain Admins count, and only they can join. See Manage Team Collaboration.

Settings > Live Chat

Everything about a person joining a conversation lives in one section:

1. Request a person. Turn on Let visitors ask for a person before the assistant answers, and choose how long a visitor waits under Wait up to: 1, 2, 3, 5, 10 or 15 minutes, 3 by default.
2. Wording. Change the words of the bell and the Contact dialog your visitors see: the button labels, the dialog title and description, the field labels and placeholders, the buttons, and the confirmation. Each field shows its default and has its own Reset; a preview shows the dialog as visitors will read it. Click Save wording. Changes apply the next time the chat loads.
3. Escalation Bell. Show the escalation bell to visitors shows or hides the bell on your website widget.
4. Dashboard alerts. On each device you use, allow Browser notifications and turn on a Sound for new requests. An admin can Regenerate the domain's Alert channel key if you ever suspect it leaked.
5. Your display name. The name visitors read when you join, set by each admin for themselves on this domain. Leave it empty to use your account name.

What visitors see

On the website widget, visitors use the bell next to the message box. On the share link, they use the Contact team button in the sidebar.

Either one opens the Contact Admin dialog: a short Reason, an optional email address, and Send. The visitor stays in the same conversation; nothing is reset. After sending, the button rests for two minutes before it can be used again.

By email, the bell becomes available once the conversation has started. On the website widget, that is after the assistant has answered the visitor's first question.

With Request a person on, the bell works from the moment the chat opens, and Talk to a person appears first among the suggestions. A strip under the chat header then shows where things stand:

• Waiting for a person… with a countdown, and a Talk to the assistant instead link. The assistant is paused. Anything the visitor types meanwhile is kept for you.
• {your display name} is here once you join. The message box then reads "Message {your display name}…".
• No one could join right now if the wait runs out. The assistant then answers everything the visitor typed while waiting, in one reply.

A badge at the top of the chat follows along: Waiting while the visitor waits, then Live on the share link or Real Time in the widget header once you join. A line in the conversation marks each moment, so a visitor who reloads still sees what happened.

What you see

With Request a person on, a request reaches you in several places at once:

• A notice on every dashboard page, A visitor on {domain} is waiting for a person, with the countdown, the visitor's reason and Open.
• A browser notification and a sound, if you allowed them on this device.
• A count next to Conversations in the sidebar, and Waiting for a person on the conversation card.

In the conversation, the takeover button reads Visitor waiting · 2:41 · Join. Click it, confirm your display name, and the visitor sees you join. You can also simply type a reply: replying while the visitor waits joins you automatically, using your saved display name.

Once you have joined, the assistant stays paused until you hand the conversation back. Click Back to AI, or leave: opening another conversation, moving to another dashboard page, or closing the tab hands it back to the assistant. See Admin Take Over.

When nobody is online

If no admin is online when a visitor asks, nobody can join in time. The request is emailed to your recipients instead, the visitor is told that the team has been emailed, and the assistant keeps answering.

The emails

The email goes to the active CC Rules recipients and links straight to the conversation.

• By email: the subject is "Admin takeover requested", with the chat reference, the time, the visitor's reason, and their email address if they gave one.
• Request a person: the subject says "A visitor is waiting for a person", so you can open the conversation and press Join.

The email does not reply to the visitor for you.

What this affects, and what it does not

• A request is part of the conversation. If it is the visitor's first action, it starts the conversation and counts toward the domain's conversations, like a first message.
• The assistant pauses only in that one conversation, and only while a person is requested or has joined. It never closes the conversation.
• While waiting, the visitor can always ask for the assistant back.
• Nothing here sends marketing email.

Best practices

• Keep at least one active recipient.
• If you turn Request a person on, keep a dashboard tab open during your support hours, or leave it off and rely on email.
• Set your display name before your first live session.
• Turn on browser notifications on the devices you work from.

Next step

Continue to Admin Take Over to answer visitors yourself at any time, with or without a request.