# Answer WhatsApp chats

> Chats shows every WhatsApp conversation live, one row per customer; you take a chat over by replying and hand it back to the assistant with one click.

https://scoco.ai/en/docs/whatsapp-chats/

Once a [WhatsApp number is connected](https://scoco.ai/en/docs/connect-whatsapp/), your assistant answers your customers by itself. Under [Chats](https://app.scoco.ai/chats) you read along live and step in when someone needs a person. When you are done, you know how to take over a chat, when WhatsApp no longer allows a reply and how to hand the chat back.

## The list

**Chats** shows one row per customer, newest first, with the last message and who has the chat right now: **AI** or **You**. The filters:

- **Needs reply**: someone on your team has taken over the chat, the customer wrote last, and WhatsApp still allows a reply. Someone is waiting for a person here.
- **Mine**: chats you have taken over.
- **AI active**: chats your assistant handles alone.
- **All**: every chat.

Next to an open chat you see the contact and their cases. **Hand over** passes the chat to someone on your team. When you open a WhatsApp conversation in the **Inbox**, **Open in a window** docks the chat at the bottom, so you can keep working on other pages.

## Take over a chat

1. Open [Chats](https://app.scoco.ai/chats) and click a chat.
2. Write your reply and click **Send**. This takes the chat over, and the assistant no longer replies in it.
3. To let the assistant reply again, click **Hand back to the assistant**.

To take over without writing, use **Take over**. Under each message it says who wrote it: **Assistant**, **Team** or **from the WhatsApp app**.

The assistant also hands a chat to your team itself, for example when someone explicitly wants to write with a person. When you reply in the WhatsApp Business app yourself, the chat counts as taken over too.

## The 24-hour window

WhatsApp allows a free-form reply only until 24 hours after the customer's last message. The chat says until when you can reply. Once the window has closed, the list shows **24-hour window closed**. Then write from the WhatsApp Business app or call. When the customer writes again, the window opens again.

## Voice messages, photos and files

scoco transcribes voice messages, and the assistant has photos described when **Have photos described** is on. scoco does not store the files themselves. WhatsApp keeps them available only for a limited time; after that no preview is possible. Open the file in the WhatsApp Business app then.

## When a conversation ends

When a chat stays quiet for a while, the conversation ends and your team gets the summary, as after a call. You set how long under **Assistants › Behaviour** with **A conversation ends after (minutes of quiet)**. The next message starts a new conversation in the same chat. Every conversation is also in the **Inbox**.

## Common problems

**I cannot reply.** With the **Viewer** role you see chats but do not write. If the 24-hour window has closed, reply from the WhatsApp Business app.

**The assistant no longer replies in a chat.** Someone took it over, in the dashboard or in the WhatsApp Business app. Click **Hand back to the assistant**.

**“Chats” is missing from the menu.** WhatsApp is not enabled for your account yet.

_Last checked: 3 November 2026_