A visitor reads two AI answers, gets most of the way there, then types "can I talk to someone?". It is 7:40pm. The escalation notification lands in an inbox nobody is watching, and by the time it is read the next morning, that person has already found an answer somewhere else.
That gap is not an AI problem. The chatbot did its job. The handoff had nowhere to land.
iShort answer
The SiteGPT iOS app puts the chatbot inbox on your phone. Conversations stream in live, sorted by who needs a person right now. When a visitor asks for a human or a lead is captured, a push notification lands, and escalation notifications can be answered inline from the lock screen. Opening the conversation gives you the transcript, the visitor's contact details, and an AI-drafted reply to edit before sending. The app is free on the App Store and included on Growth, Scale, and Enterprise; Starter does not have it. Setup, training, and billing stay on the web dashboard.
The four steps between a visitor asking for a person and you answering. Available on Growth and above.
Visitor asks
Someone on your site works through a few AI answers and then wants a person, or hands over their contact details in the lead capture flow.
AI hands off
The chatbot stops replying in that conversation and marks it as escalated. The visitor stays in the same widget rather than being sent to a form.
Push lands
A notification hits your phone the moment it happens, not on the next dashboard refresh. Escalations and new leads both notify.
You reply in a tap
Answer inline from the lock screen, or open the conversation for the full transcript, the contact details, and an AI-drafted reply you can edit.
The gap a mobile app closes
Human escalation has always been part of SiteGPT, on every plan. A visitor clicks the escalation button or asks for a person, the conversation is flagged, and the team gets notified by email, webhook, or a connected chat tool like Slack or Zendesk.
The notification was never the weak link. Replying was. Every one of those channels ended at the same instruction: go open the dashboard. Outside office hours, on a phone, at a conference, that is enough friction to lose the conversation.
The app removes the laptop from the middle of that sequence. The alert and the reply now happen in the same place, on the device you already have in your hand.
What the app does
Six things, taken from the iOS app page and the App Store listing.
| Capability | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Live inbox, sorted by urgency | Every conversation across your chatbots, in real time, with the people waiting on a human at the top |
| Push notifications that matter | A push when a visitor asks for a person, and a push when a lead is captured. Not a digest |
| One-tap takeover | Step into a live conversation and reply as yourself, then hand it back to the AI |
| Lock screen replies | Escalation notifications accept an inline reply, so answering does not require opening the app |
| Leads at a glance | Every captured lead, starrable, each one linked back to the conversation it came from |
| Usage without the dashboard | Message usage, monthly history, and knowledge base training status in their own tab |
Everything syncs live with the web dashboard, so a conversation you resolve on the phone is resolved for the teammate looking at the same account on a laptop.
Push notifications, and what actually triggers one
This matters more than the notification itself, because an alert you cannot trust is an alert you turn off.
Escalation in SiteGPT is on-demand. A visitor triggers it one of three ways: clicking the escalation button that appears under an answer, typing something like "talk to a human", or handing over contact details during the lead capture flow. If contact details are missing when a conversation escalates, the flow asks for them so the team can follow up.
What does not trigger it: the AI deciding on its own that someone sounds frustrated. There is no sentiment scoring behind the handoff. A push means a person asked for a person, which is why the notification is worth interrupting your evening for.
Taking over from the AI mid-conversation
Tapping into an escalated conversation gives you the full transcript, so there is no "can you repeat what you already told the bot" moment, plus whatever contact details the visitor provided.
While you are in the conversation, the AI stops answering. The visitor is talking to you, in the same chat widget they were already using, without a redirect to email or a ticket form.
To reduce the blank-page problem, the app drafts a suggested reply from your content. It is a starting point, not an auto-send: nothing goes out until you send it. From there you can resolve, star, or tag the conversation, and it lands the same way in the web dashboard.
Leads and message usage on the go
The leads tab lists everyone the chatbot captured, with a star for the ones worth chasing and a link back to the conversation that produced each one. Reading the conversation before you reply is usually the difference between a generic follow-up and a useful one.
The usage tab covers the operational questions you would otherwise open a laptop for: how many messages this month, how that compares to previous months, and whether your knowledge base finished training after the last content update.
One number to read correctly. Plan message limits are a range, not a fixed count, because a message on GPT-4.1-mini costs roughly a tenth of one on GPT-4.1. Growth is 10,000 messages at the all-mini end and about 1,000 if every message runs on GPT-4.1, and the split is adjustable from billing settings. A "message" counts both the visitor's question and the reply, so the usage figure moves twice per exchange.
Plans, and why the app starts at Growth
The app is included on Growth, Scale, and Enterprise. Starter does not have it, and that is not an upsell decision: Apple required that individual accounts not have access.
Growth is $129 per month billed monthly, or $79 per month when billed yearly. Every plan includes a 7-day free trial, and the app download itself is free on the App Store with no in-app purchases.
Worth separating the two things, because they are easy to conflate. Human escalation works on every plan, including Starter, through email, webhook, and connected chat tools. It is answering from your phone that starts at Growth.
Two-minute setup
- Install SiteGPT from the App Store. It needs iOS 18 or later, and the same listing runs on Apple silicon Macs and Apple Vision Pro.
- Sign in with the email on your SiteGPT team account. Any team member on the account can sign in, so this is not a single-seat app.
- Allow notifications when prompted. This is the step that matters; without it the app is a viewer rather than a pager.
- Pick the chatbot you want to watch, or switch between them from the same screen if you run more than one.
- Confirm escalation notifications are enabled in the web dashboard so the escalation path is live for the rest of the team too.
What stays on the web: creating chatbots, adding and retraining content sources, editing the persona, and billing. The app is deliberately the inbox, not the whole product.
Where this fits
Human handoff is the part of a chatbot deployment that gets specified in an evaluation and then quietly under-built, which is why it is worth reading how the major platforms actually handle handoff and live agent escalation before committing to one. The response-time argument is covered in more depth in seven ways to improve customer service with AI.
The short version: deflection is only half the promise. The other half is that the small share of visitors who need a person actually reach one, quickly, before they close the tab.
Frequently asked questions
What is the SiteGPT mobile app? A free iOS app that puts your chatbot's inbox on your phone. It shows every conversation live, sorted so the people waiting on a human are at the top, sends a push notification when a visitor asks for a person or a lead is captured, and lets you take over from the AI and reply in a tap. It also shows captured leads, message usage, and knowledge base training status. Setup, training, and billing stay on the web dashboard.
Which plans include the iOS app? Growth, Scale, and Enterprise. The Starter plan does not include the app, because Apple required that individual accounts not have access. Escalation to a human itself works on every plan through email, webhook, and chat tool notifications; it is the phone app specifically that starts at Growth. Growth is $129 per month billed monthly, or $79 per month billed yearly, and every plan has a 7-day free trial.
What actually triggers a push notification? A visitor asking for a person, or a new lead being captured. The escalation itself is on-demand: the visitor clicks the escalation button that appears after an answer, types something like "talk to a human", or provides contact details during the lead capture flow. Escalation is not decided by the AI reading sentiment, so a notification means somebody actually asked.
Can I reply without opening the app? Yes. Escalation notifications support inline replies, so you can answer from the lock screen without opening the app. Opening the conversation gives you more: the full transcript, the visitor's contact details, an AI-drafted suggested reply you can edit, and the resolve, star, and tag actions.
Is there an Android app? Not today. The app is iOS, and it also runs on Apple silicon Macs and Apple Vision Pro through the same listing. On Android or any other device, escalation notifications still reach you by email, Slack, Zendesk, Crisp, and the other connected chat tools, and you reply from the web dashboard.
Does the AI keep answering while I am in the conversation? No. When an agent takes over, the AI stops replying in that conversation and the visitor is talking to you in the same widget they were already using. The app drafts a suggested reply for you, but nothing is sent until you send it.
Can I create or train a chatbot from the phone? No. The app is built for the inbox: conversations, escalations, leads, and usage. Creating chatbots, adding or retraining content sources, changing the persona, and managing billing all stay on the web dashboard.
Sources
- SiteGPT iOS app page for the feature list, the lock screen reply, the AI-drafted reply, live sync with the dashboard, and the Growth, Scale, and Enterprise gating, read 14 August 2026
- SiteGPT on the App Store for the free price, no in-app purchases, iOS 18 requirement, and Mac and Apple Vision Pro support, read 14 August 2026
- Human support documentation for the three escalation triggers, the notification channels, the transcript and contact details an agent sees, and the AI going quiet during a takeover
- SiteGPT pricing for the Growth rates, the message ranges, and the 7-day trial
Last updated: August 2026.