Status: Active, Messages only, Paused

The status at the top of the dashboard decides for all assistants at once how they handle calls. This page shows what callers experience in each of the three states, how to switch, and when the status switches back on its own.

The three states

Messages only suits moments when you cannot talk, such as a meeting. Paused suits moments when you want to answer yourself and only need the assistant as a fallback.

Blocked callers reach you in no state. Test calls do not ring your phone in Paused either.

If an assistant also answers on WhatsApp, it does not answer there at all in Paused. You then read the messages yourself in the Inbox.

What rings when paused

In Paused, scoco calls the Destination number on the Put known callers through card under Assistants›Behaviour. This also applies when the Put known callers through switch is off. If you have several assistants, each call rings the number of the assistant that was called.

• Your phone shows the caller's number.
• Your phone rings for at most 12 seconds. Then the assistant takes over.
• If no number to ring is on file, nothing rings. The assistant then takes every request as a message, and a note under the status says so when you switch.

Switch the status

1. Click the status. It sits at the top of the sidebar, or at the top of the bar on a phone.
2. Choose Active, Messages only or Paused.
3. For a pause, choose the length below: 1, 2 or 4 hours. Clicking Paused on its own pauses for 1 hour.

The new status applies immediately and to all assistants. During a pause, the status shows until when it lasts, and so it does for Messages only with an end. It is quicker from search: press Cmd K (Mac) or Ctrl K and choose Change status.

If an assistant is switched off or set to messages only on its own, the status also shows a number: how many assistants are not active right now. The status itself still names the state for all. Clicking the status lists those assistants under Set on their own, each with its state and, if one is set, the day it is active again. Click a name to open the assistant. Switch it back on there.

A Member or Viewer sees the status and the number too but cannot change anything.

Status through Ask scoco

As an Owner or Admin you can also have Ask scoco change the status, for example with "I'm in a meeting until 3 pm" or "Pause for two hours". Ask scoco changes nothing itself: it shows a card with the current and the new status and says what callers meet until the end. Only your click on Apply switches it.

• Through Ask scoco, every status except Active has an end at most 24 hours later, Messages only too. Without an end, Ask scoco makes no proposal.
• Ask scoco is instructed to propose Messages only for "in a meeting" or "not available", and Paused when you want to answer yourself. The card shows which status it is.
• If an assistant has no number to ring, the card names it. For Paused it also names every assistant that then stops answering on WhatsApp.
• If someone changed the status since the proposal, Ask scoco does not apply it. Have it proposed again.
• The card offers no Undo. You switch back as always with one click on the status.

Ask scoco switches a single assistant as well, with a card of its own and an end at most 14 days ahead, see Silence an assistant.

When the status switches back

• Paused ends on its own at the time shown. The status is then Active again. You do not need to do anything.
• Messages only stays until you switch back to Active yourself. If it has an end because you set it through Ask scoco, the status is Active again after it.

Common problems

Your phone does not ring in Paused. Check the Destination number under Assistants›Behaviour. The scoco number itself cannot be saved there, and if it is still there from before, scoco does not call it. And if you test by calling from the very phone that should ring, it does not ring either. Test from another phone.

Your phone rings only briefly. That is deliberate. If your phone forwards unanswered calls to scoco, scoco has to hang up first, or the call comes back round in a loop. More in Set up call forwarding.

The assistant no longer puts anyone through. The status is Messages only. Switch back to Active.

You see the status but no menu. Your role is Member or Viewer. Only an Owner or Admin switches it.