# Assign and transfer conversations

Give a conversation an owner, take one yourself, hand it to a teammate, or send it back through the distribution rules.

Every conversation can have one owner, the **assignee**. Assigning makes it clear who answers, keeps conversations from being answered twice, and puts them in the owner's **Mine** tab. Transferring is the same action: you assign the conversation to someone else.

Most conversations are assigned automatically by your [distribution rules](https://hatang.dev/help/automation/routing-rules) when the customer first writes. You can always change the owner by hand.

## Assign a conversation

1. Open the conversation in **Customer Support → Inbox**.
2. Click the assign button in the header, next to **Resolve**. It reads **Assign** when nobody owns the conversation, **Bot** while the AI assistant is answering, or the owner's name.
3. Choose **Assign to me**, a teammate, or **Unassign**.


![The assign menu: you, your teammates and Unassign](https://hatang.dev/help/img/en/inbox/assign.webp)

A green dot next to a name means that teammate is online in Ha Tang right now.

The button shows the new owner's name and the timeline records "Assigned to …". The new owner gets a notification ("Assigned to you") in their browser and in the Ha Tang apps, unless they are already looking at that conversation.

Quicker ways:

- Press `a` to assign the open conversation to yourself.
- Tick several conversations in the list and click **Assign to me**.
- Just reply: if nobody owns the conversation, or the AI assistant does, your first reply makes you the owner.

## Transfer to a teammate

Open the assign menu and pick the teammate. The conversation leaves your **Mine** tab and appears in theirs, with the whole history, notes and tags. Leave an [internal note](https://hatang.dev/help/inbox/internal-notes-and-mentions) first so they know what is going on, for example "Customer wants 25 boxes delivered Monday, quote sent".

To get help without handing the conversation over, [invite the teammate](https://hatang.dev/help/inbox/internal-notes-and-mentions#invite-a-colleague-into-a-conversation) instead.

## Who can be assigned

The menu lists every employee with **Work** or **Manage** access to Customer Support, plus owners and admins. Employees with **View** access cannot own conversations. To change someone's access, see [Module access](https://hatang.dev/help/account/module-access).

## See why a conversation went to someone

Click **⋯** (**More**) → **Conversation info**. It shows the **Distribution rule** that matched (or **No rule matched**), the **Result** (for example "Assigned to Lê Hoàng Nam" with the reason, such as round robin or least busy agent) and when it was routed.

**Re-route** removes the assignee and invited teammates and runs the current distribution rules again. Use it after you change the rules, or when the owner is away.

## Unassigned and AI conversations

- **Unassigned** conversations wait in the **Unassigned** tab for anyone to pick up.
- While the AI assistant is answering, the button reads **Bot** and the list shows a **bot** chip. When the assistant hands the conversation to a person, a banner explains why. See [AI hand-off](https://hatang.dev/help/ai/handoff).
- If a resolved conversation was resolved automatically, or its owner has left the business, the customer's next message is routed again by the rules instead of going back to the old owner.

## Troubleshooting

| Problem | Cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| A teammate is missing from the menu | They have **View** access to Customer Support, or are not an employee of this business | Give them **Work** access in their employee settings |
| There is no assign button | You have **View** access | Ask an owner or admin for **Work** access |
| New conversations are not assigned to anyone | No distribution rule matched, or the rule leaves them unassigned | Check **Conversation info**, then your [distribution rules](https://hatang.dev/help/automation/routing-rules) |
| The new owner was not notified | Their notifications are off for this device or set to **Never** | See [Notifications not arriving](https://hatang.dev/help/inbox/notifications-not-arriving) |