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The Help Desk lets you store conversations, monitor them in real time, take over from the agent, and respond directly to visitors.
Help Desk is disabled by default. When disabled, no conversations or visitor data are stored — this may be preferred for privacy or compliance reasons. To retain conversations and allow visitors to see their previous chat history when they return, enable Help Desk in Settings → Help Desk.

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Enabling the Help Desk

Go to Settings → Help Desk and toggle Enable Help Desk on. Once enabled, conversations are stored and visitors can access their previous conversations when they return to your website.
The Settings → Help Desk tab is where you configure Help Desk and human support settings. The Help Desk item in the sidebar is the inbox itself — where you view and respond to conversations.

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The inbox

Click Help Desk in the sidebar to open the inbox. You’ll see a list of all conversations for the selected agent. The inbox shows all conversations with:
  • Visitor name or contact info (if provided via lead form)
  • Last message preview
  • Timestamp
  • Status — Active, waiting, or resolved
Click any conversation to open it and view the full message history.

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Responding to visitors

When you open a conversation, you can:
  • Read the full history — See all messages between the visitor and the agent
  • Send a message — Type a reply that goes directly to the visitor
  • Take over — Send a message at any time to take over the conversation, even before a support request is made

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Assigning conversations

Every conversation has an assignee — either Assistant (AI) or a team member. You can change the assignee by clicking it in the Conversation Details panel:
  • Assign to yourself — Click your name to take ownership. The AI stops responding.
  • Assign to another member — You can assign the conversation to any team member who has sent a message in that conversation.
  • Assign back to Assistant — When you’re done, reassign to Assistant and the AI resumes auto-replying.
Once a conversation is assigned to a human, the AI becomes completely idle for that conversation — it will not respond to any messages. This is intentional, to prevent the AI from answering questions directed at the human agent. The AI will only resume when you explicitly reassign the conversation back to Assistant.
Conversations requiring takeover are highlighted in the inbox so you can quickly spot visitors waiting for human support.

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Conversation details

When you open a conversation, a Conversation Details panel appears on the right. It shows two categories of information:

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Attributes

Metadata about the conversation itself:
  • Status — Open, Takeover Request, or resolved
  • Assignee — Assistant (AI) or a team member’s name
  • Channel — Where the conversation originated (Widget, Slack, WhatsApp)
  • Started At / Last Message At — Timestamps
  • Total Messages — Message count for the conversation

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Lead data

If the visitor submitted their information through a lead capture form, their details appear here:
  • Email, Phone, First Name, Last Name
  • Pseudonym — Auto-generated anonymous name (e.g., “Eerie Lavender from NL”, “Purple Cardinal from DE”) used to identify visitors in the inbox until they provide their real name
Tiny Talk also automatically detects visitor context when available:
  • City, Region, Country, Continent, Timezone
  • Browser, Browser Version, Browser Language, OS
Lead data is only populated when visitors fill out a lead form. Anonymous visitors will show auto-detected context (location, browser) but no personal details.

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Human support

Human support allows visitors to request to speak with a real person. This must be explicitly enabled — go to Settings → Help Desk and toggle Enable Human Support on. Once enabled, a support request button appears in the chat interface after 3 AI responses, giving visitors the option to escalate.

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Customizing human support

You can configure three aspects of the human support flow from Settings → Help Desk:
The text displayed on the button visitors click to request human support. The default is “Connect to Human Support”. This field supports per-language values when additional languages are enabled.
A message displayed in the chat when a human support request is made. It visually separates the conversation before and after the request, so both the visitor and agent can see the handoff point. This field supports per-language values.
After a visitor requests human support, the AI generates a short confirmation message using a customizable prompt. The prompt instructs the AI to produce a polite, reassuring response confirming the request was received. Previous visitor messages are included so the AI responds in the visitor’s language.

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How human handoff works

  1. A visitor clicks the support request button in the chat
  2. The transition message and AI-generated confirmation are shown
  3. A takeover request notification is sent to workspace members and the conversation is highlighted in the inbox
  4. The AI remains active and continues responding until a human sends a message
  5. Once a team member replies, the conversation is assigned to them and the AI becomes idle
The AI keeps responding after a support request is made — it doesn’t stop immediately. This ensures the visitor isn’t left without any response while waiting for a human. The AI only goes idle once a team member actually sends a message.

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Real-time updates

The Help Desk uses real-time communication (WebSockets) so all workspace members see new messages and conversations instantly without refreshing. Multiple team members can participate in the same conversation — there’s no limit to how many members can respond in a single thread.

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Push notifications

Tiny Talk sends browser push notifications to keep you informed about Help Desk activity. These work on desktop browsers only — mobile browsers do not support web push notifications. Go to Settings → Notifications and toggle Enable Push Notifications on. Then enable the events you want to be notified about:
  • New Conversations — When a new conversation is started
  • New Messages — When a new message is received in an existing conversation
  • Human Support Requests — When a visitor requests human assistance
Push notifications require your browser and operating system to allow notifications from the Tiny Talk dashboard. If you’re not receiving notifications, check the troubleshooting steps below.

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Troubleshooting notifications

Your browser must have notification permissions enabled for the Tiny Talk dashboard. Look for a bell or lock icon in the address bar, or go to your browser’s site settings and ensure notifications are set to Allow for the dashboard URL.
Even if your browser allows notifications, your OS may block them. On macOS, go to System Settings → Notifications and ensure your browser is allowed to send notifications. On Windows, check Settings → System → Notifications and verify your browser is enabled.
Do Not Disturb, Focus mode (macOS), or quiet hours (Windows) will silently suppress notifications. Disable these modes or add your browser as an exception.
Test whether your browser can receive push notifications at all using MagicBell’s Web Push Test. If the test notification doesn’t arrive, the issue is with your browser or OS settings — not Tiny Talk.

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Tips for effective support

  • Set up push notifications so you don’t miss takeover requests
  • Use the lead form to know who you’re talking to before responding
  • Use the system prompt (in Settings) to instruct your agent to proactively suggest human assistance for specific topics — for example, “If the visitor asks about billing or has a complaint, recommend they request human support”
  • Invite team members so multiple people can handle the inbox