Hand the chat to a person, and the bot stays quiet
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Automation is for the easy part. When someone needs a human, the Hand to a person step says so, pauses every automation in that chat, and tells your team, who answer in the Live inbox.
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Every setting, in the editor’s words
The labels you will see in the app, what each one does, and the rule behind it.
The step
Its settings, in the inspector’s words.
- Hand to a personPause the automation in this chat
The chat is marked for your team and they are notified. Until the pause ends, nothing automatic is sent in it: no flow, no keyword reply, no AI agent.
The hand-off ends the flow: it has no way out.
- Message before the hand-offSay a person is coming
An optional message goes first, so they know a person will reply here. A new step starts with “Thanks! Someone from the team will reply here shortly.”
Sent only while the 24-hour window is open.
- The automation resumes in this chatWhen the bot may speak again
After 24 hours for most questions, After 3 days for issues that take a while, like a return, or When someone resumes it from the inbox.
In the inbox
Where your team picks it up.
- Automation pausedMarked in the Live inbox
The chat shows as paused, with until when and why: a person has this chat. Everything the flow already learned (tags, answers, email) sits on the contact beside it. See the Live inbox.
- Resume automationsHand it back in one press
When the conversation is done, Resume automations lets flows and the AI agent answer again; Pause for 24 hours does the reverse by hand.
- The team hears about it
A push reaches the team, once an hour per chat at most: “Handed to a person. Open the thread to reply.”
- The escalation Instagram asks for
Instagram expects apps on its messaging API to offer a way to reach a human; the hand-off step and the inbox are that way.
The hand-off, as you set it
On the Tasting bookings flow: “Thanks! A barista will confirm your table here shortly.”, then the automation pauses in that chat for 24 hours.
- The message
- Sent first, so they know a person is coming.
- The automation resumes in this chat
- After 24 hours, 3 days, or when you resume it.
Then, in the Live inbox
The same chat in the inbox: what the automation sent is marked, and the contact panel says automations are paused, with Resume automations one click away.
- Paused until
- The time the automation picks the chat up again.
- Resume automations
- Hand the chat back to the flow early.
The numbers behind it
What the hand-off does, and the window Meta sets.
| What | The limit | Set by |
|---|---|---|
| Pause after a hand-off | 24 hours, 3 days, or until someone resumes it | CommentWatchDog |
| What stays quiet | Every flow, keyword reply and AI agent in that chat | CommentWatchDog |
| Team push | At most once an hour per chat | CommentWatchDog |
| Your team’s replies | Within 24 hours of their last message | |
| A human path | Expected of apps on the Instagram messaging API |
Meta’s rules: the Instagram Platform and Messenger Platform 24-hour messaging window, and Instagram’s requirement of an escalation path to a human.
A real inbox behind the bot
The DM tools you know, against CommentWatchDog, on what decides it.
CommentWatchDogNone on their pricing or help pages$25 for each extra seatNo Facebook posts or adsFrom each tool’s own pricing and help pages, October 2026. Logos belong to their owners.
Questions about the hand-off
What people ask before a person takes over.
The moment an automated chat passes to a real person. In CommentWatchDog the Hand to a person step does it: an optional message tells them someone is coming, the chat is marked for your team, the team is notified, and every automation stays quiet in that chat until the pause ends.
Yes. Instagram expects apps on its messaging API to give people a path to a human. The hand-off step and the Live inbox are that path in CommentWatchDog.
After 24 hours, after 3 days, or only when someone on your team presses Resume automations in the inbox, whichever you chose in the step.
Not today. Meta lets a page reply for 24 hours after the person’s last message; once they write again, the window opens again and your team can answer.
Yes. When it does not know the answer, or the subject needs a person (a refund, an upset customer), it takes its other way, which can lead to this step. See the AI chatbot.
Yes. A push reaches the team (at most once an hour per chat) and the chat is marked Automation paused in the inbox. For a ping without pausing anything, use Notify the team.