Human Handoff

Let users escalate from your AI co-pilot to a live human agent — seamlessly, without leaving the widget.

What is Human Handoff?

Human Handoff bridges your AI co-pilot and your existing support platform. When a user clicks “Invite an agent”, a conversation is automatically created in your connected support inbox and a live agent can take over — the user sees the transition happen right inside the widget.

Supported Platforms

Prerequisites

1. Human Handoff is available on plans that include the Handoff Integrations feature. Contact your account manager if you don’t see this option.

2. You need an active account with a supported support platform (Intercom or Help Scout).

3. Your StrikeUp account must have at least one Support Integration connected (see Step 1 below).

Step 1 — Connect a Support Platform

Go to Integrations in the StrikeUp dashboard and connect your support platform.

Intercom

Option A — OAuth: Click Connect Intercom (OAuth). A popup will open to authorize StrikeUp in your Intercom workspace. Approve access and the popup will close automatically.

Option B — Access Token: Click Use access token, give the integration a name, and paste your Intercom access token (found in Intercom Developer Hub → Basic info → Access token).

Required: Manual Webhook Setup

Intercom does not support automatic webhook registration. After connecting, go to your Intercom Developer Hub → Webhooks and add:

Webhook URL:

Subscribe to these topics:

conversation.admin.replied, conversation.admin.assigned, conversation.admin.closed

Without this step, agent replies will not appear in the widget.

Help Scout

Click Connect Help Scout. A popup will open to authorize StrikeUp in your Help Scout account. Approve access and the popup will close — webhooks are configured automatically, no further setup required.

Step 2 — Enable Handoff on a Widget

Once an integration is connected, enable handoff per widget. This gives you full control over which co-pilots offer human escalation.

2a. Open Widget Settings

Go to Widgets, click the widget you want to configure, then scroll to the Human Handoff section.

2b. Toggle handoff on

Enable the “Enable ‘Invite an agent’ button” switch. This makes the escalation button visible in the widget chat UI.

2c. Select integration & inbox

Choose the support integration from the dropdown. Optionally select a specific Inbox / Team to route handoff conversations to. If left blank, conversations are created without a specific inbox assignment.

2d. Save

Click Save Handoff Settings. The widget will immediately show the escalation button to end users.

How It Works — End-to-End Flow

1. User starts a conversation

The user chats with the AI co-pilot as normal.

2. User requests a human agent

The user clicks the “Invite an agent” button in the widget toolbar.

3. Conversation is created in your support platform

StrikeUp automatically opens a new conversation in the configured inbox, including the full AI chat transcript as context for the agent.

4. Agent picks up the conversation

A live agent sees the conversation in Intercom or Help Scout and responds. Their replies appear in real time inside the widget.

5. Conversation is resolved

The agent resolves the conversation in the support platform. The widget returns to its normal AI-powered state.

Inbox / Team Routing

Route handoff conversations to the right team per widget. For example:

Sales co-pilot→ Sales team inbox

Support co-pilot→ Technical Support inbox

Billing co-pilot→ Billing inbox

Configure the inbox per widget under Widget → Human Handoff → Inbox / Team.

Transcript Context

When a handoff is triggered, the full AI conversation transcript is automatically included in the new support conversation. The agent sees exactly what the user discussed with the AI before escalating, so they can pick up without asking the user to repeat themselves.

Troubleshooting

“Invite an agent” button not visible

• Confirm the Handoff Integrations feature is enabled on your plan.

• Check that handoff is toggled on for this specific widget in Widget → Human Handoff.

• Make sure the widget was saved after enabling handoff.

No inboxes appear in the dropdown

• Verify your Intercom or Help Scout credentials have sufficient permissions to list inboxes/mailboxes.

• Try re-selecting the integration to trigger a fresh inbox fetch.

• Reconnect the integration if its status shows as Disconnected or Error.

Conversation not created in the support platform

• Check the integration status in the Integrations page — reconnect if needed.

• Confirm the selected inbox exists and is active.

• Review the AI Logs in StrikeUp for any handoff-related error messages.

Agent replies not appearing in the widget (Intercom)

• Verify the manual webhook is configured in Intercom Developer Hub with the correct URL and topics.

• Ensure the webhook is set to subscribe to conversation.admin.replied, conversation.admin.assigned, and conversation.admin.closed.

• Check that the webhook URL is publicly reachable.