Live Assist FAQ
Answers to common setup and operating questions about Live Assist.
For what the app is and how to set it up from scratch, see the
Live Assist Overview.
Setup
Do I need to configure anything besides enabling the app?
Usually, yes. Before your people see a button that starts a call:
- The Live Assist app must be enabled (Admin → Apps → All Apps).
- It must be published to them. Until it is published past admins, only admins see its buttons.
- A video provider. Live Assist runs on the shared MangoApps LiveKit account by default, so this is already done unless you want your own LiveKit project (Admin → Integrations).
- The app’s own Live Assist switch. Every app Live Assist works inside has one. In Field Service Suite, Inspections, Chat and Lone Worker it is off until an admin turns it on; in Safety Hub, Asset Pro, Service Desk and Onboarding Hub it is on until an admin turns it off.
- Who can start a Live Assist session? must admit them. It allows any employee by default.
The Live Assist Overview page shows an admin which of these is still in the way, and each app’s switch.
Which apps have their own Live Assist switch?
All eight, named as they appear on that app’s settings page. 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, at the 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.
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, for Service Desk staff, managers and the ticket’s assignee.
- Onboarding Hub → Settings → Integrations: Live Assist — adds Welcome huddle to onboarding plans.
How do I test that the video connection works?
Go to Apps → Live Assist → Settings and run Start test session. You can invite a teammate to check that they can join. You cannot invite yourself — pick someone else. Test calls are marked as tests in the call list.
Permissions and access
Who can start a call, and how do I restrict it?
Who can start a Live Assist session? on the Live Assist Settings page. The default is Any employee. Managers & admins only hides every button that starts a call — Get help, Live inspection, Live video, Remote support, Start Huddle (Live Assist) and Welcome huddle — from everyone below manager, and the server refuses their request. Company admins and Live Assist app admins can always start one.
Lone Worker calls open on their own when an alert is acknowledged and are not affected. Watching a site camera has its own setting, Who can watch a site camera?
Who can see calls they were not part of?
Everyone sees the calls they started, were invited to or joined, and — while it is live — a call that rang them. Beyond that:
- Managers can see and join any Get help, Live inspection or Live video call while it is running, so they can answer it. Two exceptions: Lone Worker calls go to the alert’s responders, and a Service Desk agent’s Remote support call to the ticket’s requester is not open to managers by role.
- Who can open sessions they were not part of? decides who can open every call, including ended ones with their recording, transcript and AI summary. The default is App admins only; you can widen it to Any manager or above or to Specific people.
- Site feeds are listed only for the people who can watch a site camera.
Company admins and Live Assist app admins can always open every call.
Who can join a call that is running?
- The host and anyone they invited.
- On a Get help, Live inspection or Live video call: any manager, and anyone the call rang, until it ends.
- Not on a Service Desk agent’s Remote support call, though: it rings only the ticket’s requester, and managers cannot join it by role.
- On a chat huddle: the room’s members.
- On a Lone Worker call: the alert’s responders.
- Anyone allowed to open calls they were not part of.
Who can end, record or invite people into a call?
The host, and anyone allowed by Who can open sessions they were not part of? (plus company admins and Live Assist app admins). Anyone else in the call can leave it but not end it for others.
Retrying a failed recording or summary is only for the people allowed to open calls they were not part of — not the host.
Who can use the Monitoring wall, Site feeds, Analytics and Settings?
- Monitoring wall: managers, company admins and Live Assist app admins.
- Site feeds: anyone who can register feeds (company admins and Live Assist app admins), watch a site camera, or read a feed’s audit log. Deleting a feed is for company admins.
- Analytics and Settings: company admins and Live Assist app admins.
Routing and notifications
Who is notified when someone asks for help?
- The record’s own people, first, whatever the switches below say: a work order’s 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’s inspector; an onboarding plan’s hiring manager, new hire and mentor; a chat room’s members; a ticket’s requester or assignee. Assets, incidents and locations name nobody.
- On Get help, Live inspection and Live video calls: the group chosen under Route help requests to, in the app and by phone push — 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 (an on-shift group with nobody on shift, say), or it has been deleted — the switch When no group below can be rung, notify every manager and company admin (on by default) sends an in-app notice to everyone with a manager or company-admin role. With it off, nobody beyond the record’s own people is notified.
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 is an ordinary help call (its assignee, then steps 2 and 3). Lone Worker calls ring only the responder who acknowledged the alert — the alert’s escalation has already reached its responders.
Is there a limit on how many people a call rings?
Each ring notifies up to 50 people straight away; anyone past 50 is notified moments later by a background job, so nobody is dropped.
What happens when nobody is notified?
If a call reaches nobody — for example, Get help on an asset with the switch off and no group to ring — the person starting it is told that nobody was notified and to use Invite someone (in the call’s ⋮ menu) to bring a teammate in. Sharing the room’s link is not enough: it opens only for people who already have access to the call.
Day-to-day
How does recording work, and is it on by default?
Recording is opt-in. A call is recorded only when the host, or someone allowed to open calls they were not part of, presses Record in the room. When the recording finishes it is saved with the call, transcribed, and summarized by AI. The summary appears on the call’s details page and on the record’s Live Assist card.
Two cases differ:
- Chat huddles are recorded automatically when Chat’s AI huddle summaries (records huddles) setting is on. A recording notice is posted into the room, and the summary is posted there when the huddle ends — unless the huddle was too short to summarise. With that setting off, a huddle someone records by hand gets its summary on the call’s details page, not in the room.
- Site feeds can be recorded only when recording is turned on for that feed.
Only Chat writes the summary into the record itself. On a work order, inspection, incident, asset or ticket it is shown on the record’s Live Assist card, not added as a note.
Can I take a snapshot during a call?
Yes. Anyone in a live call can capture a frame. Snapshots must be PNG or JPEG and no larger than 10 MB. A snapshot is saved as photo evidence on the record when the record keeps photos (work orders, inspections, incidents, assets, Lone Worker alerts, App Builder records), and otherwise on the call.
How do site-feed schedules work?
When you turn on a feed’s schedule, it replaces the manual on-air control: you set the days of the week, a start and end time, and a time zone, and the feed goes on and off air on that schedule. Overnight windows (for example 22:00–06:00) are supported — the window belongs to the day it starts.
A background sweep runs every 5 minutes to apply scheduled changes and check IP-camera state. If the feed has no time zone, it uses the location’s, then the platform default.
Does a site camera show that it is live?
A browser capture point — a tablet or kiosk running the feed’s capture page — shows an ON AIR notice on its own screen while it is live. A fixed IP (RTSP) camera has no screen and cannot show one, so post signage at that location yourself; Live Assist marks every IP-camera feed as having no on-site notice.
What happens when a Lone Worker alert is acknowledged?
When the Lone Worker setting Open a live video channel to the responder when an alert is acknowledged is on, acknowledging any alert — an SOS, a missed check-in or another trigger — opens a call between the worker and the responder who acknowledged it, and the responder is sent a link to join. The worker’s last-known location shows in the room. If someone records the call, the recording is saved on the alert. The setting is off by default and needs the Live Assist app enabled.
What is in a site feed’s audit log?
Every registration, on-air and off-air window, observation 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. An IP (RTSP) camera writes no online/offline rows. Rows cannot be edited or deleted. You can filter by event type and date range, and export to CSV (newest 10,000 rows per export). Who can read it is set by Who can read and export a site feed’s audit log?
When something looks wrong
Why don’t my workers see the Live Assist button?
Check these in order — the Live Assist Overview page shows an admin most of them:
- Is Live Assist published to them? If it is published to admins only, nobody else sees a button. Admin → Apps → All Apps.
- Is the app’s own Live Assist switch on? Every app has one. Field Service Suite, Inspections, Chat and Lone Worker start with it off; Safety Hub, Asset Pro, Service Desk and Onboarding Hub start with it on.
- Does “Who can start a Live Assist session?” admit them? With Managers & admins only, frontline workers do not see the button.
- Is the record in the right state? Live inspection appears on in-progress inspections; Remote support is shown to Service Desk staff, managers and the ticket’s assignee, not its requester.
Why is the Observe button unavailable on a site feed?
A feed can be observed only while it is broadcasting: on air, and with its source live — a browser device that is connected, or an IP camera whose stream has been set up. If the feed is off air or its device is offline, Observe is unavailable. The feed’s page shows its current state.
A site feed’s device went offline — why was nobody told?
The 5-minute sweep notices when a browser capture device that was connected stops reporting and notifies company admins and Live Assist app admins. If the feed should have been on air at the time, the notice says so. A device that has never connected does not raise one, and neither does a fixed IP (RTSP) camera.
My recording says “processing” and never finishes — where is it?
After a recording stops (or the call ends), it shows as processing while the file is saved, transcribed and summarized — normally a few minutes. If it stays there, the video provider may not have delivered the file. If it fails, the host, everyone who joined and the people who can retry it are notified, and the call’s details page offers Retry to the people who can retry it.
Licensing and limits
Does Live Assist require a licence?
No. Live Assist is pay-as-you-go: there is no licence to buy and no monthly minimum. An admin enables the app, and usage is billed per participant minute.
How is usage billed?
Everyone’s connected time in a call is added up and the total is rounded up to the next minute, once per call. Each person counts for at most 240 minutes of one call. The unit is a participant minute — a 10-minute call with 2 people is 20 participant minutes. The rate is a flat $0.02 per participant minute, with no tiers and no free allowance. Transcription and AI summaries draw on your shared AI credit pool, not the per-minute video meter.
Are there limits I should know about?
| What | Limit |
|---|---|
| Feed name length | 100 characters |
| In-call snapshot size | 10 MB (PNG or JPEG) |
| Analytics date range | 1–365 days (default 30) |
| Call CSV export | Newest 10,000 rows per export |
| Feed audit-log CSV export | Newest 10,000 rows per export |
| People notified at once per ring | 50 — the rest are notified moments later by a background job |
| External / guest participants | Not supported — invitees come from your organization only |
More help
- Live Assist Overview
- Ask AI — the assistant answers Live Assist questions from these articles.