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Human handoff

Desktop app

Work your live chat inbox from your computer: sign in with your browser, get notifications, take over chats, reply, and use keyboard shortcuts.

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The SiteTrellis desktop app puts your live chat inbox on your computer. You sign in with your normal SiteTrellis account, get a notification when a visitor needs a person, take the chat over and reply, all without keeping the dashboard open in a browser tab.

Availability The desktop app is available for Windows. Download the Windows installer (version 1.0.1, 64-bit, about 107 MB). The installer is not code-signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen may ask you to confirm the first time you run it: choose More info, then Run anyway. macOS and Linux versions are next. It is included on every plan.

Sign in#

Choose Sign in with your browser. The app opens SiteTrellis in your default browser, where you sign in as usual and see the same consent screen used for connected apps. You decide which permissions to allow. The app never sees your password: after you approve, the browser hands a one-time code back to the app on your own computer, and the app exchanges it for an access token.

The token is kept in your operating system's secure storage (Windows Data Protection), not in a plain file. Signing out removes it and removes this computer from your list of devices. You can also disconnect the app at any time under Settings, Connected apps in the dashboard.

Work the inbox#

The inbox has four views, each with a live count: Needs attention (chats waiting for a human), Mine (chats you took over), Open and All. You can search, filter by site and scroll through older chats. Unread counts, who has a chat, and resolved markers match the web inbox.

The list updates by itself. SiteTrellis does not push events to desktop apps; the app checks for changes every few seconds while the window is visible and more slowly while it is minimized, and it backs off automatically if the connection drops. When you are offline a banner says so and the app reconnects without you doing anything.

Take over and reply#

  1. Open a conversation to read the transcript, the visitor details, the page they are on and any lead they filled in.
  2. Choose Take over. The AI stops answering and the visitor sees that a person joined. Taking over needs a plan with live takeover, the same as in the dashboard.
  3. Type your reply. Enter sends, Shift+Enter adds a new line, and replies can be up to 4000 characters. If a send fails, the message stays in the conversation with a Retry button, and a retry never sends it twice.
  4. Choose Hand back to AI when you are done, Mark resolved to tick it off in your inbox, or End chat to close it. Ending a chat asks for confirmation.

The visitor sees when you are typing, and you see when they are. Chats that another teammate has taken over are read-only for you.

Notifications#

The app shows native desktop notifications and a count on the taskbar or tray icon. In Settings you choose which events notify you: a chat needs a person, a visitor writes in a chat you took over, or a new chat starts. Each event notifies once, you can turn the sound and message previews off, and clicking a notification opens that chat.

  • Do not disturb: pause notifications manually or on a daily schedule. Counts keep updating.
  • Tray: closing the window keeps the app running in the system tray so alerts keep arriving. Quit from the tray menu, and note that notifications stop while the app is not running.
  • Start at login: optional, and the app can start minimized.

Privacy and safety#

  • Visitor messages are shown as plain text. Links in a visitor's message are never opened automatically: you see the address and confirm before it opens in your browser, and only web addresses can be opened.
  • Notifications can hide message previews, so visitor text does not appear on a locked screen or a shared screen.
  • The app only does what you allowed at sign-in. If you did not allow replying, the reply controls are replaced by an explanation, and you can sign in again to change that.
  • Message text and tokens are not written to the app's log.

Keyboard shortcuts#

The app works fully from the keyboard. Press ? inside the app for the complete list. A few useful ones: Ctrl+K searches, the arrow keys move through the list, Enter opens a chat, Alt+T takes over, Alt+H hands back, and Esc goes back. The interface follows your system light or dark theme and respects reduced motion.

Updates#

The installed app checks for updates in the background and installs them when you restart. You can also check by hand under Settings, Updates.