Can I Turn Off Human Handoff in Shopify Inbox AI?
Shopify’s help center does not describe a setting that switches staff handoff off in the Inbox agent. It says handoff depends on your availability hours. During those hours, the conversation moves to your staff. Outside them, the customer gets your store’s email address and has to email you. If you want the AI to keep helping instead, and to decide yourself when a person steps in, AeroChat lets you set that in your own words.
Shopify Inbox behavior from Shopify’s help center: Managing customer conversations, Assigning your Inbox agent to conversations and availability and first reply, checked 11 November 2026.
Why merchants ask
The merchants who raise this are often happy with the Inbox agent’s answers. The trouble starts when a shopper asks for a person, or the agent decides a conversation needs staff. A solo owner or a small team is not always there to pick it up. Outside your hours, the shopper is given an email address and leaves the chat, and the store loses the conversation it was having. Merchants on the Shopify Community ask for a way to keep the AI answering instead.
What Shopify Inbox does today
Per Shopify’s help center, checked 11 November 2026:
- When a customer asks to speak with a person, or a conversation needs staff attention, the conversation can be handed off to your staff. What happens depends on your availability and staff handoff settings.
- If staff handoff is available, the conversation moves to the Unassigned folder in Inbox with the AI’s earlier context, and you get a notification if Inbox notifications are on.
- If staff handoff is not available, the customer receives your store’s sender email address. The Inbox agent cannot send email for you, so the customer has to write first.
- With the agent assigned to all conversations, a request for a person goes to your staff during your availability hours. Outside them, the customer gets your email address. Availability is set to always available by default.
- The agent has three assignment modes: All conversations, Only when your staff is unavailable, and Never.
The usual fixes and their limits
- Narrow your availability hours. Handoff then reaches your staff only when someone is there. Outside those hours, the shopper is still given an email address instead of an answer.
- Use “Only when your staff is unavailable”. The agent answers out of hours and your staff answer during them. During your hours every conversation needs a person.
- Give the agent more to work from. Shopify says the agent answers from your products, policies, pages and Knowledge Base. Filling gaps there means fewer conversations need staff attention, but it does not change what happens when a shopper asks for a person.
- Use a different chat app. Apps that let you write your own rules for when a person steps in give you that control, on your store and on other channels.
How to handle it in chat with AeroChat
With AeroChat, handover is a safety net that you define. You write in your own words when a conversation goes to your team, for example a refund over your limit or an angry customer, and what AeroChat says when your team is offline. If a shopper asks for a person outside your hours, AeroChat tells them when the team is back, takes their details and keeps helping in the same chat. You see when the AI is talking, you can jump in at any time, and you can switch the AI off.
Customer: Can I talk to a real person? I want to know if the oak side table will fit through a narrow doorway. (example)
AeroChat: Our team is back at 9am tomorrow and I’ve noted your question for them. I can help now too: the oak side table is 23 inches wide and 24 inches tall, and the legs don’t come off. If your doorway is wider than 24 inches, it will fit. What’s your email, so the team can follow up?
Customer: ali@example.com. The door is 30 inches, so that’s fine. I’ll order it.
AeroChat: Great. Here is the link to the oak side table. It’s in stock and ships in 2 days (example).
In AeroChat: the conversation stays with the AI, the customer’s email is saved for follow-up, and your team sees the full thread in the morning.
Copy this into AeroChat
Answer every shopper yourself from our Shopify catalog, policies and knowledge base. Only hand a conversation to our team for refunds over US$100 (example), damaged or missing parcels, or a customer who is upset after two replies. If a shopper asks for a person, ask what they need first and answer it if you can. If our team is offline, tell them the team is back at 9am (example), take their email for follow-up, and keep helping in the chat. Never give out an email address instead of answering. Reply in the customer’s language.
Change the handover rules and team hours to match your store before you paste it.
What to connect
- Your Shopify store. Built in. Install AeroChat from the Shopify App Store and connect your store, so the AI answers from your products, stock, shipping rates and orders.
- Your team’s hours and offline message. Set them in the AeroChat dashboard, so AeroChat knows when someone is there to take over.
- Your channels. Add WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger or email, and the same rules apply on each one.
Questions
Can I turn off human handoff in Shopify Inbox?
Shopify’s help center, checked 11 November 2026, does not describe a setting that turns staff handoff off. It says handoff depends on your availability and staff handoff settings, and that outside your availability hours the customer gets your store’s email address.
What happens when a customer asks for a person outside my hours?
In Shopify Inbox, per Shopify’s help center, the customer receives your store’s sender email address and has to email you. In AeroChat, you decide: the usual setup tells them when your team is back, takes their details and keeps helping in the chat.
Can I still take over a conversation in AeroChat?
Yes. You see when the AI is talking and can jump in at any time, and you can switch the AI off.
Switching from Shopify Inbox?
No sign-in wall for shoppers, their email is captured for follow-up, you see when the AI is talking and can jump in, and you can switch the AI off.
Using a different system? If it has a public API, it connects to AeroChat the same way: describe what you want, paste in its key, and it runs.
Can’t find your tool? Message us in the chat on this page and we’ll tell you how it connects.
Decide when a person steps in
Install AeroChat, paste the handover recipe, and ask your own store chat for “a real person” after hours to see what happens.
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