> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.aide.app/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Follow up by email when a visitor leaves the chat

> Aide Chat can collect a visitor's email, so your team's replies still reach them after they leave the chat.

Aide Chat can collect a visitor's email, so your team's replies still reach them after they leave the chat. When they reply to that email, it lands back in the same conversation.

## Choose when to ask

In Aide Chat > Behaviour, set "Ask for an email":

* **In the chat, after Aide first replies** (default): asked once, and the visitor can skip it.
* **Before the first message:** required before the visitor can start chatting.
* **Off:** never asked on its own.

Whatever you choose, a handoff still asks for an email when your agent's handoff settings say to, and the widget asks when a teammate takes over or you're offline.

## How the visitor answers

Aide asks in the conversation and the visitor types their email in the message box. If they write something else instead, it goes through as a normal message and the question stays until they answer or tap "Not now". A visitor who mistyped can send the right address straight after, or tap "Change". The exchange is saved in the conversation, so your team sees it in the thread.

## Replies by email

* A teammate's chat reply is emailed to the visitor if they haven't read it within 15 minutes, or about a minute after they close the chat.
* Replies they've already read in the chat are never emailed.
* The emails come from your connected support mailbox. Without one, they come from Aide's shared address under your brand name, with replies routed back to you.
* The visitor's email reply is added to the same conversation.

## Changing an email later

Visitors can fix a typo during the same visit. Changing an address saved on an earlier visit needs a code sent to the current address, plus one to the new address if the current one was verified. Visitors your site identifies with a signed identity can't change their email in the widget.


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