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The inbox is where your team talks to customers. It has three panes: the conversation list on the left, the thread in the middle, and the details panel on the right.
This page explains every control. A new teammate should read Kai for support agents first: it teaches the same inbox as a job, one task per page.
The Kai inbox

The inbox: list, thread, and details panel.

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The conversation list

The conversation list

The conversation list, with the views menu and the status filter.

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Open and closed

The segment at the top of the list has two positions, Open and Closed. Open holds every conversation that still waits for someone. Closed holds the conversations your team finished.

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Views

Views is a menu, not a row of buttons. It holds: An Agent sees Mine and Unassigned. An Admin or a Manager also sees All and each teammate. See Your team for what each role may do.

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Unread

Unread is counted per teammate. A conversation is unread for you until you open it. Your unread rows are bold and carry a dot. A teammate who reads the same thread does not clear it for you. The search box reads contacts and messages. Type at least two characters. Search is a mode, not a filter. The results ignore the view and the open or closed filter, because a thread that you look for by name is often not in the view you are in. Press Escape to leave the search.

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Live traffic

The header shows Live when the realtime connection is up. It shows Reconnecting… when the connection drops. New messages still arrive after a reconnect. When a teammate types in a conversation, the row shows the typing indicator.

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The thread

The middle pane holds the messages, newest at the bottom. Select Load earlier messages to read further back.
  • A message from Kai carries the name Kai and a lighter bubble.
  • A message from a teammate carries that teammate’s name.
  • An Internal note is an aside between teammates. The customer never reads it.

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Delivery ticks

Every message that your side sent carries a tick beside the time. A status only moves forward. If a delivery fails, the message shows Not delivered and the reason.

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Voice notes and attachments

Kai copies inbound media to its own storage the moment it arrives, because a provider link expires in minutes. While the copy runs, the bubble shows Media is processing….
  • A voice note plays in the bubble. Under the player, Kai shows the transcript in quotation marks.
  • An image renders in the bubble. Select it to open the full size.
  • Any other file shows its name and its size. Select it to download it.
To send a file, use the attach button in the composer.

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Assignment

One conversation has one assignee. The composer is locked until somebody holds the conversation, because two teammates answering one customer is the failure this queue exists to prevent.
1

Open an unassigned conversation

The bar above the composer says Nobody has this conversation yet. If Kai handed it over, it says Kai handed this conversation over. Nobody has it yet.
2

Take it, or give it away

Select Assign to me. To give it to somebody else, use Assign to someone else in the same bar.
You can also change the assignee from the Assignment section of the details panel, at any time.
If the customer has an account owner, Kai assigns the conversation to that person while it is still unassigned. Ownership routes new work. It never takes a thread back from the teammate a manager gave it to. See Contacts and account owners.

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Sending a message marks a takeover

When a person sends a message on a thread, Kai stops answering that thread. The activity feed records the conversation as Autopilot muted: a human took over. This is a runtime rule, not a setting. It holds in copilot and in autopilot, and it holds whether the person replied from Kai or from the channel’s own inbox. To get one more suggestion after a takeover, ask for it. See Working with Kai’s drafts.

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Closing a conversation

Select Close in the thread header. The conversation leaves the open queue. Kai asks you to confirm, and tells you that you can reopen it at any time. Select Reopen to put it back in the open queue.
Archive is not the same as close. An archived thread is read only and permanent. If the customer writes again, the message starts a new conversation.

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The details panel

The inbox details panel

The details panel: assignment, account owner, profile, and workspace attributes.

The right pane holds, from the top:
  • the customer’s name, and a badge that reads Kai, With an agent, Open, closed or Archived;
  • Assignment, and the teammates who look at this conversation right now;
  • Account owner, the teammate who owns this customer;
  • Profile and Workspace attributes, the record of the customer;
  • Conversation: the channel, the message count, First seen, Last activity, and Reply window;
  • a Kai section, when Kai has a draft waiting in the composer.
The panel is hidden on a narrow window. The thread header keeps its own assignee control, so assignment is never out of reach.

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The WhatsApp 24 hour window

WhatsApp allows a free-form reply only inside 24 hours of the customer’s last message. The details panel shows this under Reply window: either the time the window closes, or Closed. Inside the window, write and send as normal. Outside the window, the composer says: The 24-hour WhatsApp window has closed. Only template messages can be sent until the customer writes again. This is Meta’s error 131047, in words. The composer then offers the templates that Meta approved for your account.
1

Select Use a template

The composer changes to the template picker.
2

Select a template

Kai fills the variables it can. From your profile takes your name. From contact details takes the customer’s name.
3

Fill what is left, then send

If your profile has no name, Kai asks you to add it first.
The customer’s reply opens a new 24 hour window, and the plain composer comes back.
Some accounts have Meta’s Direct Send. With it, the composer offers Write a message as well, and Meta builds a matching template from what you write. Keep those messages to service updates, never to promotions.

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Starting a conversation

Select New message to write first. Search for somebody you already talked to, or type a full phone number in international format, for example 905321234567. Kai asks you to confirm that this person agreed to receive messages from you. Meta and KVKK both require consent, and Kai holds no record of it.

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Next

Working with Kai's drafts

Use a draft, edit it, and rate it so the next retrain learns from it.

Contacts and account owners

Who a contact is, and how ownership routes new conversations.