Use account automation to choose the normal responder for a connected business identity. Use a chat override when one customer needs a different responder. This gives your team one default to maintain while leaving room for individual exceptions.
For example, a WhatsApp sales account can use an enquiry flow for routine requests, while a colleague handles a particular complaint manually. Another account can use an AI agent that prepares replies for review.
Choose where the setting belongs
| Setting | When to use it | Where to configure it |
|---|---|---|
| Account default | The normal behavior for a connected identity | Accounts → select account → Automations |
| Chat override | A different responder for one conversation | Inbox → open chat → responder control |
| Flow design | The questions, decisions and handover steps | Message flows |
| Agent configuration | Instructions, knowledge and tools | Agent Manager and its Thinking Engine settings |
| Event or schedule | Work triggered by a business event or time | Automations |
Public comments have a separate reply configuration. Changing a social account's private-message default does not change its public-comment replies.
Prepare an eligible responder
First confirm that ordinary messages work through the account. Automation cannot repair an expired provider connection or grant a teammate access to a missing inbox.
For AI, prepare a workspace agent with its Thinking Engine enabled and availability for inbox or email replies as appropriate. Check its instructions and any knowledge or tools before allowing customer-facing actions. Use the knowledge guide if it needs verified business facts.
For a flow, save and publish a version that supports the account's platform. Draft-only or incompatible flows do not appear in the selector. Use the message-flow guide to build and simulate the conversation first.
Account-management access and AI-settings access are separate requirements. If you can inspect the account but cannot change its responder, ask the owner to review your effective access.
Set the account default
- Open Accounts → Automations and select the supported account. Confirm the business identity and platform.
- Choose Manual, AI agent, or Message flow. Manual leaves the account's default replies to the team.
- For a flow, select the intended published version's flow from the list. Use Refresh choices after publishing in another tab.
- For AI, select the agent and choose Reply behavior. Draft for review is a useful starting point. Send automatically permits automatic replies; Send outside business hours depends on the configured business-hours behavior.
- Review Reply timing & limits. The pause after a human reply gives a colleague time to continue, the incoming-message delay combines short bursts, and the consecutive-reply limit controls when the team takes over.
- Select Save account automation, then check the saved summary.
Email automation prepares drafts only; message flows are not offered for mailboxes. WhatsApp account automation applies to one-to-one conversations, not group chats.
Make an exception for one chat
Open the conversation in Inbox and inspect its current responder. Choose an eligible AI agent, a published flow, or Manual when this chat needs a different approach. This choice takes priority over the account default.
For a complaint, select Manual, read the previous replies and record what the team will do next. After resolving the exception, choose Use account default if the chat should follow the account again. Do not change the entire account just to stop automation for one customer.
Changing a chat's responder stops its previous flow. Changing an account default lets already active flow sessions finish. Neither action removes messages that have already been sent.
Test the behavior you expect
Use a controlled customer identity to check a chat following the account default, a manually handled exception, and a chat returned to the default. For AI drafts, confirm that the draft waits for review. For a flow, test invalid input and the human-handover branch as well as the successful path.
If a chat does not follow a new account choice, check its override first, then any active flow, human pause, channel restriction and saved configuration. An account showing inherited defaults still uses the earlier inheritance behavior until you save a direct choice.
For tasks such as notifying a supervisor after a record changes, use event subscriptions and recurring work. Those rules complement account replies; they do not replace the account's responder setting.