Live calls
Live calls shows the calls your agents are having right now and lets you step in: listen without anyone hearing you, give the agent a hint, take the call over yourself or end it.
Live calls are part of the Business and Enterprise plans. On other plans the page shows what the feature does, with Upgrade to Business. What counts is the plan of your own account.
Where to find it
Live calls in the sidebar, in the Calls group. It is not shown on a partner's white-label domain.
The list of calls
Every call your agents are having right now, newest first. The list updates by itself every couple of seconds.
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Agent | The agent on the call |
| Channel | Inbound call, Outbound call or Web (a call through the web widget) |
| Caller | The caller's number, partly hidden — or Web visitor for a web widget call |
| Length | How long the call has been going; ringing… while an outgoing call has not been answered yet |
| Last line | The latest line of the conversation |
The counter next to the title shows how many calls are live. When nothing is live, the page shows two dimmed example rows.
When someone is already speaking on a call, the row says Held by ….
What you can do with a call
Each row has Listen, Take over and End. Opening a call shows the conversation as it happens, with the controls below it.
Listen
You join the call silently: neither the caller nor the agent hears or sees you. If the browser holds the sound back, the page says Click to enable sound. — click it. Stop leaves the call.
Whisper
While you are listening or speaking, type a note to the agent and click Whisper. Only the agent gets it — the caller neither hears nor sees it.
Take over
The agent goes quiet and you talk to the caller through your microphone; the browser asks for access to it. Mute and Unmute switch your microphone off and on. Hand back returns the call to the agent, and the agent carries on the conversation.
While you hold the call, the caller hears only your voice — there is no signal when you join or leave. The agent does not hear what you said: after you hand the call back, it picks up with a general question, for example whether the caller has anything else to ask.
- A call can be taken over only once someone has answered it.
- Only one person can hold a call at a time. While someone holds it, the others see who, and nobody else can take it over.
End
Click End, optionally type a goodbye for the agent to say, then click End the call. The agent says goodbye and hangs up in the usual way, so the call gets its summary and your post-call actions run as after any other call. If the agent does not finish in time, the call is cut off.
Cost and call history
While you listen or speak, the call goes on as usual, and its minutes are charged like any call's — including the time you talk yourself. Joining, listening and whispering to the agent cost nothing extra.
What you say yourself does not appear in the call's transcript: there, the moment you joined is marked with an @operator_joined line and the moment you left with @operator_left. Your voice can be heard in the call recording.
If something does not work
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| Microphone is blocked. Allow it in the browser to speak. | Allow the microphone for this site in the browser settings, then try again. |
| No microphone found. | Connect a microphone or a headset. You need one to take a call over; listening works without it. |
| Nobody is on the line yet. | The outgoing call has not been answered yet. Wait until someone picks up. |
| Could not connect to the call. / Lost the audio connection. | Check your internet connection and open the call again. |
| The call is already back with the agent. | The agent already has the call back. Take it over again if you need to. |
Related
- Platform Overview — the sidebar and its sections
- Analytics — transcripts and recordings of finished calls
- Billing & Subscriptions — what each plan includes