Configure channel switching

Channel switching lets a visitor move an in-progress chat to another channel — useful when they’re about to step away from their desk but want to continue the conversation on their phone.

This article covers manual switching, where the visitor initiates the move. For the related-but-different case where Atender moves the conversation because the visitor’s connection dropped, see Configure dead-connection detection.

Before you start

• The widget exists. If not, create one first.
• The destination channels you want to allow switching to are set up. You can’t switch to SMS if SMS isn’t configured.
• If you want to allow email switching, the conversation needs the visitor’s email — usually collected via the pre-chat survey.
• If you want to allow SMS or WhatsApp switching, the conversation needs the visitor’s phone number.

Steps

1. Open Settings → Web Chat and click your widget.
2. Open the Channel Switching tab.
3. Enable Show channel switch button. This adds a control inside the widget that visitors can use to switch.
4. Pick the allowed switch channels. Options are:
   Email — moves the conversation to email. The visitor’s next message arrives via email.
   SMS — moves the conversation to SMS. Their phone number is the destination.
   WhatsApp — moves the conversation to WhatsApp.
5. Save.

Verify it worked

• Open your site, start a chat, and trigger the pre-chat survey (or enter contact info if your widget asks for it).
• Look for the channel-switch button inside the widget.
• Click it and confirm the channels you enabled appear as options.

What happens after a switch

When a visitor switches, the conversation does not start over. It carries the full history with it. From the agent’s side in Atender, the channel badge updates to the new channel, and the visitor’s next message will arrive from there.

The visitor sees a confirmation message inside the chat acknowledging the switch (“We’ll continue this conversation by email”), and then the live chat session ends.

Limits

• A visitor can only switch to a channel for which Atender has their identifier. If you don’t have their phone number, you cannot switch them to SMS — the option won’t be offered.
• A visitor can only switch to channels you’ve enabled in this tab. Channels disabled at the tenant level (like SMS if Vonage isn’t connected) are never offered regardless.
• Switching is one direction at a time. A visitor can switch from web chat to SMS, but can’t switch back to web chat from SMS in the same conversation. They would need to start a new conversation from the widget.

Troubleshooting

• Symptom: The channel-switch button doesn’t appear in the widget. Fix: Either Show channel switch button isn’t enabled, or no destination channels are picked. Confirm both, save, and hard-refresh the page.

• Symptom: The button appears but SMS isn’t an option, even though you enabled it. Fix: Atender needs the visitor’s phone number to offer SMS. Add a phone field to the pre-chat survey so it’s collected before the switch button can be useful.