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Assignment is how Xobito makes sure every conversation has an owner. When a conversation is assigned to a staff member, that person is responsible for replying, and the conversation appears in their Assigned to me queue.
Xobito’s current build supports manual assignment plus a single workspace-wide toggle that restricts replying to agents only. There is no round-robin, no least-loaded strategy, no away-timer, and no queue-threshold alert built into the app. This page describes what the product actually does today — don’t design your workflow around features the settings page doesn’t expose.

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Why assign conversations

Clear ownership

Each conversation has one owner, so no customer message is answered twice (or not at all).

Skill-based routing

Hand off to the right teammate — language, product area, VIP tier — by reassigning manually.

Workload visibility

Managers can see who’s handling which conversations at any moment.

Accountability

Every reply is linked to the staff member who sent it — useful for audits and coaching.

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Assign a conversation manually

1

Open the conversation

From the Live Inbox.
2

Click 'Assign'

Use the assign button (or the avatar placeholder) in the contact panel on the right.
3

Pick a teammate

Start typing to filter. Only staff members who have the required chat permission can receive assignments and reply — see Who can be assigned.
4

Confirm

The conversation now belongs to that staff member. They’ll see it in their Assigned to me filter.
Assign agent dialog

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Reassign a conversation

Same flow — click the current assignee’s avatar and pick someone else. Reassignment updates immediately; the previous owner loses it from Assigned to me and the new owner sees it there.
When reassigning, add a short internal note explaining why (e.g. “moving to billing — refund request”). The new owner gets context instantly.

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Unassign a conversation

To put a conversation back into the shared pool:
  1. Open the conversation.
  2. Click the current assignee’s name.
  3. Select Unassign (or clear the assignee).
Unassigned conversations appear in the Unassigned filter in every staff member’s inbox, until someone picks them up.

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The unassigned queue

New incoming conversations start unassigned. Staff work through the queue like a shared to-do list.
1

Filter the inbox

Pick Unassigned in the filter chips above the conversation list.
2

Claim a conversation

Open one and assign it to yourself — or to a teammate better suited for it.
3

Handle or route

Reply yourself, or leave an internal note and reassign.
The unassigned queue does not send a threshold-based email alert in the current build. If you need to be notified when the queue grows, set up your own monitoring via the API or train a team-lead habit of checking the filter periodically.

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Who can be assigned

A staff member must have the tenant.chat.view permission (or an equivalent chat-reply permission their role grants) to be eligible as an assignee and to reply in chat. Staff without that permission:
  • Don’t appear in the Assign picker.
  • Won’t be able to reply even if a conversation is somehow assigned to them.
Permissions are granted via Settings → Roles — see Team & Roles.

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Support Agent settings

One and only one setting lives on the Settings → Support Agent page.
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only_agents_can_chat
boolean
default:"false"
When enabled, only staff with the chat-reply permission (tenant.chat.view) can send messages in conversations. Other staff may still browse conversations if their role allows viewing — they simply cannot reply.

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What only_agents_can_chat = true does

  • Staff members with the chat-reply permission: unchanged — they reply normally.
  • Staff members without that permission:
    • Can still open conversations if they have read access (so managers can review).
    • The reply composer is disabled for them.
    • They cannot leave internal notes that transmit to the customer.

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What it does not do

The Support Agent settings page does not include:
  • Round-robin or least-loaded auto-assignment.
  • An “Away” status timer that auto-marks staff unavailable.
  • A queue-threshold alert (“notify me when unassigned > 20”).
  • Auto-reassignment when a staff member is marked away or offline.
  • Per-role eligibility filters for an auto-assigner (there isn’t one).
If previous documentation suggested any of these, that was incorrect — they aren’t in the current build. If you need that kind of automation, use a combination of Bot Flows for acknowledgement, manual assignment for routing, and discipline in your team workflow.

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When to enable

Turn only_agents_can_chat on when:
  • You have non-support staff (sales ops, finance) who need read access to conversations for context but should never reply themselves.
  • You want a single switch to enforce “only trained agents talk to customers” across the workspace.
Leave it off (the default) when:
  • Every staff member with inbox access is trained to reply.
  • You’re a small team where anyone helping out can respond.
Support Agent settings
1

Open Settings → Support Agent

Sidebar → Settings → Support Agent.
2

Flip the toggle

Turn Only agents can chat on or off.
3

Save

The change takes effect immediately.

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Assignment and the 24-hour session window

The 24-hour session window is tied to the contact, not to the agent. Reassigning a conversation does not reset the window — the new owner inherits however much time is left.

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Per-agent visibility

Managers can filter the inbox by assignee to see who’s handling what, and use the activity reports under Team & Roles for aggregate metrics.

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Frequently asked questions

No — only one assignee at a time. Other staff with inbox access can still view and (if only_agents_can_chat permits) add internal notes, but only the assignee is the “responsible” owner.
There is no automatic “away” handling. Before they leave, either reassign their open conversations manually to another teammate, or unassign them so they return to the shared pool.
Not in the current build — the Support Agent settings page is a single toggle. Route new conversations by training your team to work the Unassigned filter, or use a Bot Flow to acknowledge the customer while a human picks up.
No. Bot Flows and template bots send messages on the workspace’s behalf regardless of only_agents_can_chat. The toggle governs human staff only.
Not directly. The toggle keys off the chat-reply permission. Shape who can reply by choosing who you grant that permission to in Settings → Roles.
Assignment changes are visible in the conversation itself (you can see the current owner and who sent each reply). A formal cross-conversation audit log isn’t exposed through the Support Agent settings — check Team Activity for broader activity reporting.

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Next

Chat settings

Stop-bot keywords, notification sounds, auto-lead, and more.

Team & roles

Invite staff, grant the chat-reply permission, and manage roles.