Determine the period during which the chatbot will wait for user interaction before performing a predefined action, such as ending the conversation or redirecting to another flow, using the inactivity time feature.

In this article, you’ll learn how to enable and configure this functionality and integrate it into the conversational flow in a practical way.

Use case example

Imagine you have a customer service chatbot that collects important information, such as name and email.

If the user takes too long to respond during a specific step, you can use the inactivity time feature to remind the user or politely end the conversation.

This prevents conversations from getting "stuck" in the flow.

Configuring inactivity time

Step 1: Enabling inactivity time

1. Click on Settings, located at the bottom-right corner of the chatbot builder.

2. Enable the Conversation inactivity time option by toggling the switch.

3. Set the desired waiting time, which can range between 5 minutes and 23 hours.

4. Click Save Changes.

Step 2: Handling inactivity time in the conversational flow

After enabling the inactivity time feature, you need to configure how the chatbot should act when this time is reached.

This is done by adding a specific handling step to the flow. There are two ways to configure this:

1. Using a Marker

To configure inactivity time using a marker, we recommend placing the block in a subflow separate from the main flow.

Follow these steps:

1. In the Builder, click Flow, located in the bottom-left corner of the screen.

2. Select Create New Flow to add a subflow.

3. Click Add Block.

4. In the Marker field, select the inactivity time option. Add a Text Message content with a message such as: “I noticed you’ve been inactive. If you have any other questions, feel free to return to this conversation. Thank you for contacting us, and see you soon!”.

5. Click Save Changes.

Done! Now, when the inactivity time is reached, the conversation will be automatically redirected to the block with the inactivity time Marker.2. Using a Condition-Based Destination

In the following image, we see an example of a conversational flow that includes inactivity time handling using a dedicated block.

To set this up:

1. Create a specific block for inactivity time handling (like the "inactivity time" block in the image).This block should contain the message that will be sent to the user if they don’t respond within the configured time. For example: “I noticed you’ve been inactive. If you have any other questions, feel free to return to this conversation. Thank you for contacting us, and see you soon!”.

2. Identify which block in your flow should redirect to the inactivity time block. In the image, the "Thank You" block is configured to redirect to the "inactivity time" block if the user remains inactive.

3. Click on the originating block (in this case, "Thank You") and go to the Destination Settings.

4. Click Add Destination and set the following condition: If the variable input.text is EQUAL TO inactivity_time.

Test the configuration using the chatbot simulator. 

1. After interacting with the originating block (Thank You), the chatbot waits for the configured time.

2. If the user remains inactive, the chatbot correctly redirects to the inactivity time block (inactivity time).

This configuration ensures that the chatbot handles inactivity according to the defined destination.