Live Assist
1. What it is
Live Assist lets someone start a real-time video call — camera, microphone and screen share — from the record the work is about, such as a work order, an inspection, an incident or a chat room, and have a colleague see what they see and guide them live. Every call is listed in Live Assist against that record. When someone records a call, the recording, its transcript and an AI summary are kept with it.
- Enablement: Live Assist is a pay-as-you-go app billed per participant minute with no licence required. An admin turns it on for the organization, publishes it to the people who should use it, and then checks the Live Assist switch inside each app — four start off, four start on.
- What it is not: Live Assist is not a general-purpose meeting tool. Calls start from a record, not from a standalone “new meeting” button. The test call on the Settings page is a connectivity check only.
2. Standing it up
- Turn the app on. Go to Admin → Apps → All Apps, find Live Assist, and enable it.
- Publish it to your people. On the same page, publish Live Assist to everyone, or to the groups who should use it. Until you do, only admins see its buttons — the Live Assist Overview page says so for an admin.
- Video provider. Live Assist runs on the shared MangoApps LiveKit account by default, so there is nothing to set up. For a dedicated LiveKit project (for example, for data residency), add a LiveKit meeting provider under Admin → Integrations (API key, API secret and server URL).
- Check the switch inside each app. Every app Live Assist works inside has its own Live Assist switch. These four are off until an admin turns them on:
- Field Service Suite → Settings: Live Assist — adds Get help to work orders.
- Inspections → Settings: Enable Live Assist — adds Live inspection to in-progress inspections.
- Chat → Settings: Live Assist huddles — adds Start Huddle (Live Assist) to each conversation’s … menu (top right of the room), and a full-width Start huddle button at the end of the conversation on a phone.
- Lone Worker → Settings: Open a live video channel to the responder when an alert is acknowledged — opens a call automatically when a responder acknowledges any alert.
These four are on until an admin turns them off:
- Safety Hub → Settings → Incident Settings: Live Assist — adds Live video to incidents.
- Asset Pro → Settings → Core Features: Live Assist — adds Get help to assets.
- Service Desk → Settings → General (under Features): Live Assist — adds Remote support to a ticket’s Actions menu.
- Onboarding Hub → Settings → Integrations: Live Assist — adds Welcome huddle to onboarding plans.
- Confirm it works. Go to Apps → Live Assist → Settings and run Start test session. Invite a teammate to check that they can join.
The Live Assist Overview page shows an admin what still stands between their people and the buttons: whether the app is published past admins, whether Who can start a Live Assist session? is limited, and each app’s switch.
3. How it fits together
Calls and their names
A call is a single video session attached to one record. What the call is called depends on how it started:
- Help call — started with Get help (work orders, assets) or Remote support (Service Desk tickets). The person asking shares their camera or screen and a colleague guides them. Remote support started by a Service Desk agent is the agent calling the ticket’s requester; a call the requester starts on their own ticket is an ordinary help call.
- Live video — started with Live inspection (inspections) or Live video (Safety Hub incidents). The person on site points the camera while a remote colleague directs.
- Huddle — started with Start Huddle (Live Assist) in a chat room (Start huddle on a phone) or Welcome huddle on an onboarding plan. A call among the room’s or plan’s people.
- Site feed — watching a registered site camera (see below). The watcher receives video only and cannot broadcast into the feed.
Lone Worker calls open on their own when an alert is acknowledged; they appear as help calls about the alert.
A call nobody joined shows as Not connected.
Example: a technician on a work order taps Get help. A help call starts about that work order and the people Live Assist routes it to are notified (see below). A colleague joins, sees the technician’s camera and guides them. If someone pressed Record, the recording and its AI summary are kept with the call.
Participant roles
- Guided — whoever started a help call or live video.
- Host — whoever started a huddle (and anyone who joins a huddle without having been invited to it).
- Expert — everyone else who joins, including everyone a call invited or rang by name.
- Observer — someone watching a site feed. Subscribe-only: cannot publish audio or video.
Every role except Observer has full camera, microphone and screen share. The role is how the person is listed on the call’s details page.
Who is notified when a call starts
- The record’s own people, first, whatever the switch below says. A work order rings its technician, whoever created it and Field Service’s dispatch desk — the group chosen under Field Service’s Who hears about Field Service work with no owner, else the Field Service app admins. An inspection rings its inspector; an onboarding plan its hiring manager, new hire and mentor; a chat room its members; a ticket its requester or assignee (see Remote support below). Assets, incidents and locations name nobody.
- Then, on Get help, Live inspection and Live video calls:
- If a group is chosen under Route help requests to, everyone in that group is notified — in the app and by phone push — on every such call, whatever the switch below says.
- When no group can be rung — none is chosen, or the chosen group has nobody in it when the call starts (for example, an on-shift group with nobody on shift), or it has been deleted — the switch When no group below can be rung, notify every manager and company admin decides whether everyone with a manager or company-admin role gets an in-app notice. It is on by default.
- Huddles ring only the chat room’s members or the onboarding plan’s people. Remote support started by a Service Desk agent rings only the ticket’s requester; a call the requester starts on their own ticket rings its assignee and then the group or managers, like any help call. Lone Worker calls ring only the responder who acknowledged the alert — the alert’s own escalation has already reached its responders.
Each ring notifies up to 50 people at once; anyone past 50 is notified moments later by a background job. With the switch off, no group to ring and a record that names nobody (an asset or an incident), a call reaches no one — the person starting it is told so, and to use Invite someone (in the call’s ⋮ menu) to bring a teammate in. The room’s link opens only for people who already have access to the call, so sharing it is not enough.
Once someone answers, everyone else who was rung is told who is on it, and their notice closes.
Who can see, join and control a call
- Everyone sees the calls they started, were invited to or joined, and — while it is live — a call that rang them.
- Joining a live call: the host and anyone invited; on Get help, Live inspection and Live video calls, any manager and anyone the call rang, while it is running; on a chat huddle, the room’s members; on a Lone Worker call, the alert’s responders. A Service Desk agent’s Remote support call is not open to managers: only the people on it (the agent, the requester and anyone invited) and the people allowed to open calls they were not part of can join it.
- Opening calls you were not part of: decided by Who can open sessions they were not part of? (default: App admins only). Those people can open every call, including ended ones with their recording, transcript and AI summary.
- Ending a call for everyone, recording it, and inviting people into it: the host, or anyone allowed to open calls they were not part of. Anyone else in the call can leave it.
- Retrying a failed recording or summary: only the people allowed to open calls they were not part of — not the host.
- Site feeds: watching one is decided by Who can watch a site camera? and reading its audit log by Who can read and export a site feed’s audit log? (both default to app admins only). Registering, editing and taking a feed on air are for company admins and Live Assist app admins; deleting one is for company admins.
- Monitoring wall: managers, company admins and Live Assist app admins.
- Analytics and Settings: company admins and Live Assist app admins.
Company admins and Live Assist app admins can always do everything above.
Site feeds
A site feed is a registered camera at a location — a tablet or kiosk running the capture page in a browser, or a fixed IP (RTSP) camera — that publishes video into a long-lived room that permitted people can watch.
- The device publishes; watchers only receive. Someone watching a site feed cannot broadcast into it.
- On-air notice. A browser capture point shows an ON AIR notice on its own screen while it is live. An IP camera has no screen, so it cannot show one — post signage at that location yourself. Live Assist marks every IP-camera feed as having no on-site notice.
- Audit log. Every registration, pairing, on-air and off-air window, watch start and end, token rotation, recording start and stop, browser device going online or offline, and recording purge is written to an append-only log per feed. It answers “who watched which site, and when.” An IP (RTSP) camera writes no online/offline rows.
Recording, transcript and AI summary
Recording is opt-in: a call is recorded only when someone presses Record in the room (the host, or someone allowed to open calls they were not part of). Two cases differ:
- Chat huddles are recorded automatically when Chat’s AI huddle summaries (records huddles) setting is on (with Live Assist huddles), and a recording notice is posted into the room.
- Site feeds can be recorded only when recording is turned on for that feed.
When a recording finishes it is saved with the call — as video evidence on the record itself for work orders, inspections, incidents, assets, Lone Worker alerts and App Builder records, and on the call’s details page for the rest. The recording is then transcribed and an AI summary with key points and action items is written. The summary appears on the call’s details page and on the record’s Live Assist card. Only Chat writes it into the record itself: a huddle summary is posted into the room when Chat’s AI huddle summaries setting is on and the huddle ran long enough to summarise. The host and everyone who joined are notified when the summary is ready; if the recording or summary cannot be produced, the host, everyone who joined and the people who can retry it are told.
During a call, anyone in it can capture a snapshot. It is saved as photo evidence on the record when the record keeps photos, and otherwise on the call.
Where the buttons appear
| App | Button | Own switch |
|---|---|---|
| Field Service Suite | Get help on work orders | Live Assist (off by default) |
| Inspections | Live inspection on in-progress inspections | Enable Live Assist (off by default) |
| Chat | Start Huddle (Live Assist) in each conversation’s … menu; Start huddle at the end of the conversation on a phone | Live Assist huddles (off by default) |
| Lone Worker | Opens automatically when an alert is acknowledged | Open a live video channel to the responder when an alert is acknowledged (off by default) |
| Safety Hub | Live video on incidents | Live Assist (on by default) |
| Asset Pro | Get help on assets | Live Assist (on by default) |
| Service Desk | Remote support on tickets (for Service Desk staff, managers and the assignee) | Live Assist (on by default) |
| Onboarding Hub | Welcome huddle on onboarding plans | Live Assist (on by default) |
Every button also needs Live Assist published to the person, and Who can start a Live Assist session? to admit them.
4. Running it
Reviewing calls
Go to Apps → Live Assist. The Overview page lists the calls you can see with their record, kind, status, duration and AI summary. Filter by status (Not connected, Live, Ended) or by kind (Help call, Live video, Huddle, Site feed). Click Details on a call to see its AI summary, transcript, recording and participants.
Using the monitoring wall
Go to Apps → Live Assist → Monitoring wall (managers, company admins and Live Assist app admins). It shows the live calls you can join, recent ended calls you can open, and — for people who can see site feeds — the registered feeds and whether each is on air. It refreshes every 30 seconds.
Managing site feeds
Go to Apps → Live Assist → Site feeds. From here, depending on your access, you can:
- Register a feed — give it a name and location, choose the source (Browser or RTSP), and optionally turn on audio capture and recording.
- Put it on air — by hand, or on a schedule (days, start and end times, and time zone).
- Observe a feed — opens a receive-only view of the feed. Available only while the feed is broadcasting.
- Read the audit log — filter it and export it as CSV.
- Rotate the device token — issues a new capture URL; update the device to it.
Viewing analytics
Go to Apps → Live Assist → Analytics (company admins and Live Assist app admins). It shows call volume over time, breakdowns by kind and by app, average duration and recording counts. The default window is 30 days, and the data can be exported as CSV.
5. Settings
All on Apps → Live Assist → Settings:
| Setting | Default | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Who can start a Live Assist session? | Any employee | Managers & admins only hides every button that starts a call (Get help, Live inspection, Live video, Remote support, Start Huddle, Welcome huddle) from everyone else, and the server refuses their request. Lone Worker calls are not affected. |
| When no group below can be rung, notify every manager and company admin | On | When Route help requests to has no group, or its group has nobody in it when a call starts or has been deleted, Get help, Live inspection and Live video calls send an in-app notice to everyone with a manager or company-admin role. Off, they reach only the record’s own people. |
| Route help requests to | No group | A group chosen here is notified — in the app and by phone push — on every Get help, Live inspection and Live video call, in place of every manager and company admin and whatever the switch above says. If the group has nobody in it when a call starts, or has been deleted, the switch above decides instead. |
| Who can open sessions they were not part of? | App admins only | Who can open any call, including its recording, transcript and AI summary — and end, record and invite people into any call, and retry a failed recording or summary. Any manager or above or Specific people widen it. It does not affect who can answer a live call. |
| Who can watch a site camera? | App admins only | Specific people lets chosen groups watch site feeds without registering or changing them. |
| Who can read and export a site feed’s audit log? | App admins only | Specific people lets chosen groups read and export the log without watching or changing a camera. |
The same page has Start test session (a connectivity check) and Sample data (load demo calls and site feeds, then clear them).
Per-feed settings, set when registering or editing a site feed:
| Setting | Default | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Capture audio as well as video | Off | Whether the feed captures sound as well as video. |
| Allow recording this feed | Off | Whether the feed can be recorded. Recordings are kept with the feed. |
| Delete recordings after (days) | Blank (kept indefinitely) | When set, recordings older than this are deleted automatically by a sweep that runs every 5 minutes. |
| Automatically go on air on a schedule | Off (put on air by hand) | When on, the feed goes on and off air on the days, times and time zone you set. |
6. More help
- Live Assist FAQ — specific setup and operating questions.
- Ask AI — the assistant answers questions about Live Assist from these articles.