AI chat on your Shopify site, people on WhatsApp: hand-off with the question already typed

What does "WhatsApp hand-off" mean in Tycoon?

The AI handles the conversation on your site, and your team takes over on WhatsApp. Tycoon answers product, sizing, shipping and policy questions in the site chat. When a shopper asks for a person, or the question needs one, she gets a WhatsApp button. It opens a chat with your number, with a short message already written in her language.

The AI never pretends to be human. The chat window is labelled "AI assistant", and it always offers a person from your team. Merchants cannot switch that off. For why this matters, see AI chatbot disclosure and human hand-off.

How does the hand-off work, step by step?

The shopper taps once and lands in WhatsApp with a message she can read, edit and send. Nothing is sent automatically. Your team receives an ordinary WhatsApp message written as the customer would write it, so nobody has to work out where it came from.

1. Tycoon looks for your WhatsApp number on your site. On install it reads your theme, pages and policies for the contact details you already show shoppers, such as a wa.me or api.whatsapp.com link. If it finds a WhatsApp link, WhatsApp becomes the default. If not, it tries your phone number, then your email, and otherwise your contact page. There is nothing to set up, and you can set or change the channel in Settings at any time.
2. The shopper asks for a person. She might type "can I talk to someone?" or tap the hand-off button.
3. WhatsApp opens with the message already written. For example: "Hi, I'm interested in the Linen trousers in size M: [link] . Do they run small?" The message includes the product and its variant, a link to it on your store, her latest question in her own words, and her order number if she gave one.
4. She sends it, and your team replies in WhatsApp as usual.

By default the message contains no chat transcript and no reference code. You can edit the template for each language in Settings, and a custom template can add the chat lines or a reference. Before the AI's lines go into the message, any clause with a figure, code, link or price is removed.

Out of hours: if you set business hours, the WhatsApp button still works outside them. The widget tells her your team will reply when they're back, and a "Leave a message" link sits under the button. She never hits a dead end, and she doesn't need to log in.

No stray contacts: Tycoon blocks any reply that contains a phone number, email, link or handle other than your store's own or the hand-off target. That stops a manipulated chat from sending your shoppers somewhere else.

WhatsApp button, WhatsApp bot, or site chat with hand-off?

Choose by where you want questions answered. A plain WhatsApp button sends every question to your team. A WhatsApp bot answers inside WhatsApp, which usually needs WhatsApp Business Platform access, plus opt-in for any message you start. A site chat with hand-off, which is how Tycoon works, answers on the product page and sends only the conversations that need a person to WhatsApp.

Each option suits a different store. If most of your conversations begin in WhatsApp, for example from click-to-WhatsApp ads, a WhatsApp-native tool fits that flow. If they begin on your product pages, answering there keeps the shopper next to the product and the cart. The click-to-chat link itself is a standard WhatsApp feature (WhatsApp Help Center: click to chat) and needs no Business API.

What does the AI handle before anyone is handed off?

Most questions are answered in the site chat, and your team gets the ones that need a person.

• Product questions: when the need is unclear it asks one short question, then suggests one to three products, each with a reason, and adds the one she picks to your store's real cart when she taps.
• Live price and stock: read from your store for every reply, never from memory.
• Store facts: it states shipping thresholds, return windows and delivery times only after you have approved them.
• Order status (Growth plan and up): a shopper signed in to your store's customer account can ask about her own orders from the last 60 days.
• Every reply is checked before it is sent. Replies are not streamed. A draft with a figure that doesn't match live data or an approved fact is blocked and rewritten.

More in support automation and the AI chatbot for Shopify overview.

Which other hand-off channels does Tycoon support?

WhatsApp is the default when your site links to it. You can also hand off to phone, email, Shopify Inbox or the chat app your store already runs. You pick or change the channel in Settings.

On Free and Starter, a help-desk chat choice falls back to your contact page. Creating help-desk tickets (Gorgias, Zendesk, Re:amaze, Richpanel) is a separate feature on Pro and up. The full integrations list shows each one with its plan, and pricing compares the plans.

Why does WhatsApp hand-off matter for stores outside the US?

In many markets, including Israel, much of Latin America, parts of Europe and the Gulf, WhatsApp is a common way for shoppers to contact a shop. A site chat that hands off to your WhatsApp, in the shopper's own language, fits that habit, and your team keeps working in the app it already uses.

Tycoon answers each shopper in the language she writes in, across 16 languages, with right-to-left layouts for Hebrew, Arabic and Urdu. The WhatsApp message is written in her language too: a Spanish-speaking shopper sends a Spanish message, and a Hebrew-speaking shopper sends a Hebrew one, worded gender-neutrally unless the chat knows her gender. See languages. For Israeli stores, the Hebrew guide וואטסאפ או צ׳אט AI באתר compares the options in Hebrew.

What do merchants complain about with chat hand-off?

In our study of 233 public reviews of Shopify AI chat apps, 10 reviews describe an AI with no way to hand over to a person, or no way to follow up with a shopper who left. It is a small count, but 8 of the 10 are from 2026. Read the full analysis in Shopify AI chat apps: what merchants complain about.

Before you install any chat app, check three things:

• Can a shopper reach a person from any point in the chat, on every plan?
• Does your team see the product and the question, or just "Hi"?
• Is the hand-off target your own number, and does the app stop other contact details from appearing in replies?

Tycoon is in early access. It is an independent app, not affiliated with or endorsed by Shopify.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. WhatsApp Help Center: click to chat · checked October 28, 2026