Every channel has one answer to the question "who replies first?". You choose it when you connect the channel, and you can change it at any time from Connect. A channel nobody answers is the one thing on the Connect page that is silently broken, so Natiq pins it at the top under Unrouted.
The three modes
In the channel drawer, the Answering agent section has a switch with three options:
- 1Bot
- 2Live agents
- 3External bot
| Mode | What happens |
|---|---|
| Bot | A published AI agent answers every message. |
| Live agents | People answer every message. New conversations wait in the channel's queue until an agent takes them. |
| External bot | A chatbot that runs outside Natiq answers. A person takes over only when the bot transfers the conversation, or when the bot cannot be reached. |
Web Chat has no switch. Its agent is whichever one you last published, so the mode isn't yours to set there.
Assign an AI agent
Open Connect and find the channel on the Connected tab.
Open the Agent picker on its row, or open the channel with Edit.
Choose a published agent. If the list says "No published agents yet", publish one in Agent Builder first.
The two routes behave differently:
The Agent picker on the row applies at once. A toast confirms it, for example "{agent} now answers {channel}", with an Undo button.
In the Edit drawer, your choice is saved when you select Save channel. The toast reads "Channel updated" and has no Undo.
One agent can answer many channels, but each channel has exactly one agent. The picker shows how many channels each agent already answers.
If an agent already answers another channel of the same type, the picker warns that messages would go to whichever channel was set up first. The row then shows Duplicate route.
To hand the channel to people, choose Live agents in the switch instead. Choosing Human inbox only on an existing channel doesn't do that: the channel stays in Bot mode with no agent, so it shows No agent and sits under Unrouted. Messages there aren't answered.
Send a channel to people
Choose Live agents in the switch. The drawer shows how many agents are on the channel's queue. (The agent count in the queue picker shows in every mode, not only here.) If nobody is, it says "Nobody is on this queue yet": messages still arrive but wait unassigned until someone joins. Select Add agents to fix that.
Hand a channel to an external bot
Choose External bot, then pick the bot under Which external bot answers. If none exist yet, add one first. See Connect an external bot.
Choose the queue
Under Queue, pick where the channel's conversations land:
- In Live agents mode, every new conversation waits there until an agent takes it.
- In Bot mode, it's where a conversation waits when the agent hands over to a person, unless the bot names another queue.
- Several channels can share one queue. The picker shows which others land in the queue you choose.
- Choose New queue to create one named after the channel when you save. Nobody is on it yet, so add agents afterwards.
Check the result
The status pill on each row tells you the state: Ready, Live agents, External bot or No agent. Rows in Live agents or External bot mode show that mode instead of an agent picker.