LenoChat Navigation Bar Overview

April 15, 2026

Learn what each icon in the sidebar does and how to move between inbox, AI settings, visitors, and team management with a single click.

How the Navigation Bar Is Organised

LenoChat uses a two-tier navigation system. The primary navigation bar is a slim vertical strip of icons anchored to the far left of the screen. Clicking any icon takes you to that section of the app, and in some sections — most notably the Inbox — a secondary left panel expands to show filters, team members, and channel views. The primary navigation includes: Dashboard, Inbox, Visitors, Team, Leno AI, and Settings. Certain items are visible only to account Owners and Admins; agents see a simplified version focused on their daily work. This role-based structure keeps the interface clean and ensures team members only see the tools they need.

The Primary Navigation Bar

The six icons in the primary navigation bar each represent a major area of the product. Dashboard (analytics chart icon) — available to Owners and Admins only, this section shows team-wide performance metrics including total conversations, response times, and agent workloads. Inbox (chat bubble icon) — available to all users, this is the main conversation workspace where agents read and respond to customer messages. Visitors (globe icon) — available to all users, this section shows a real-time map and list of active visitors on your website. Team (group icon) — available to all users, this is where you manage agent accounts, invite new team members, and assign roles. Leno AI (AI icon) — available to all users, this is the control center for your AI chatbot: configuration, training, conversation history, and handoff settings all live here. Settings (gear icon) — available to Owners and Admins only, this opens a comprehensive settings panel covering company details, the chat widget, integrations, and billing.

LenoChat primary navigation bar showing Dashboard, Inbox, Visitors, Team, Leno AI, and Settings icons

The Inbox and Its Sidebar Filters

When you click the Inbox icon, a secondary left panel opens beside the primary bar. This panel is divided into collapsible sections that let you filter conversations by status, AI activity, team member, or channel. Each section can be expanded or collapsed by clicking its heading, and the state is remembered between sessions. The filter sections are: the Chat Filter menu (always visible at the top), the Leno AI Agent section, the Team Members section, and the Channel Views section. At the very bottom of the sidebar you will also find a keyboard shortcuts button that opens a dialog listing every available shortcut.

My Chats — shows only conversations currently assigned to you. This is your default view when you first open the Inbox.
All Assigned — shows every conversation that has been assigned to any agent on the team, giving Admins a full picture of active work.
Follow-up Later — shows conversations you or another agent have flagged for follow-up, so no customer falls through the cracks.
All Resolved — a searchable archive of every conversation that has been closed. Useful for reviewing past interactions or reopening a chat.
Unassigned — shows conversations in the queue that have not yet been assigned to any agent. Admins often monitor this view to ensure no messages go unanswered.

Tip: Unread conversation counts appear as small numbered badges on each filter in the sidebar. Keep an eye on the Unassigned badge — a growing number there means customers are waiting for a first response. Checking it at the start of your shift is a good habit.

Chat Filter Quick Reference

Filter	Shows	Best Used By
My Chats	Conversations assigned to the logged-in agent	Agents managing their own queue
All Assigned	Every assigned conversation across the team	Admins monitoring team activity
Follow-up Later	Conversations flagged for future action	Any agent tracking open items
All Resolved	Closed conversations archive	Managers reviewing performance
Unassigned	Queued chats waiting for assignment	Admins triaging incoming volume

Leno AI Agent Section in the Sidebar

Below the main chat filters in the Inbox sidebar is the Leno AI Agent section. This collapsible group shows you conversations that your AI chatbot is handling or has recently handed off to a human agent. It contains two views. 'All Conversations' lists every chat that Leno AI is actively managing — these are conversations where the bot is responding autonomously without any human involvement. 'Escalated and Handoff' lists conversations where Leno AI has detected that a human agent is needed and has transferred the chat. When a visitor explicitly asks for a human, or when the AI confidence falls below its configured threshold, the conversation appears here so an agent can step in promptly. Monitoring this view regularly ensures no escalated customer has to wait unnecessarily for a human response.

All Conversations — bot-managed chats currently active
Escalated and Handoff — AI-to-human transfers awaiting agent pickup

Team Members Section in the Sidebar

The Team Members section of the Inbox sidebar lets you filter conversations by individual agent. Each agent on your account appears here with a real-time online/offline status indicator. Clicking an agent's name shows you only the conversations assigned to them, which is helpful for Admins who need to balance workload or investigate a specific agent's queue. At the top of this section you will find a 'Dashboard' link that opens the Team Members Dashboard — a dedicated analytics view showing each agent's conversation counts, response times, and availability. Note that the Team Members Dashboard is a paid feature available on Pro and Business plans. If your plan does not include it, the link will prompt you to upgrade.

Channel Views in the Sidebar

The Channel Views section at the bottom of the Inbox sidebar lets you filter conversations by the channel through which the customer contacted you. LenoChat supports multiple channels from a single inbox, and this section makes it easy to focus on one at a time. The available channels are: Live Chats (conversations initiated through the JavaScript widget on your website), Facebook Messenger (messages received via your connected Facebook Page), Instagram (messages and story replies from your connected Instagram Business account), and WhatsApp (messages from your connected WhatsApp Business number). If a channel has not been connected to your account yet, it will not appear in this section. You can connect new channels from the Integrations panel in Settings. Each channel view shows the unread badge count, so you can quickly see if one channel has a backlog of unanswered messages.

LenoChat inbox sidebar showing channel views for Live Chats, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp

Tip: You can drag and drop the collapsible sections in the Inbox sidebar to reorder them to match your workflow. If you primarily handle WhatsApp messages, move that channel view to the top of the list so it is always front and centre. Your order preference is saved automatically.

Navigating the Settings Menu

Clicking the Settings icon (gear) in the primary navigation bar opens a full-screen settings panel with its own left-side submenu. This submenu groups all configuration options for your LenoChat account. The available settings pages are: Company Settings (your business name, logo, and contact details), Chat Operating Hours (set your team's availability schedule and away message behaviour), Chat Widget (customise the appearance, pre-chat form, offline state, and use the playground to preview changes live), Integrations (connect external services — Owner-only), Plans & Pricing (manage your subscription, purchase AI add-ons, and view payment history), and Delete Account / Change Account Owner (advanced account-level actions — Owner-only). Owners see all six items. Admins see everything except Integrations and Delete Account / Change Owner. Agents do not have access to Settings at all.

Company Settings — business profile and branding
Chat Operating Hours — availability schedule and away messages
Chat Widget — appearance, pre-chat form, offline configuration, playground preview
Integrations — third-party connections (Owner only)
Plans & Pricing — subscription, AI add-ons, purchase history
Delete Account / Change Owner — account-level administration (Owner only)

Settings Access by Role

Settings Page	Owner	Admin	Agent
Company Settings	Yes	Yes	No
Chat Operating Hours	Yes	Yes	No
Chat Widget	Yes	Yes	No
Integrations	Yes	No	No
Plans & Pricing	Yes	Yes	No
Delete Account / Change Owner	Yes	No	No

Role-Based Navigation: What Each Account Type Sees

LenoChat has three account roles — Owner, Admin, and Agent — and the navigation bar adapts based on which role is logged in. Owners have access to every section: Dashboard, Inbox, Visitors, Team, Leno AI, and Settings (including all settings subpages). Admins see the same primary navigation as Owners, but within Settings they cannot access Integrations or Delete Account / Change Account Owner. Agents see a simplified navigation: they have access to Inbox, Visitors, Team, and Leno AI, but Dashboard and Settings are hidden entirely. This ensures agents can focus on their conversations without accidentally changing account-wide configurations. If you need an agent to access settings, you must first promote them to Admin or Owner from the Team section.

Owner — full access to all navigation sections and settings subpages
Admin — full access except Integrations and Delete Account options in Settings
Agent — access to Inbox, Visitors, Team, and Leno AI only; no Dashboard or Settings

Visitors Section and the Real-Time Map

The Visitors icon (globe) in the primary navigation opens the Visitors section, which shows a real-time map of people currently browsing your website. Each active visitor appears as a pin on the map with their country flag and approximate location. Below the map you will see a list of all active visitors with additional details: the page they are currently viewing, how long they have been on the site, and whether they have initiated a chat. You can click any visitor in the list to see their full session details and start a proactive conversation by sending them a message directly. Proactively reaching out to visitors who are lingering on pricing or checkout pages is a powerful way to increase conversions. The Visitors section is available to all user roles.

Team Section: Managing Agents

The Team icon (group of people) opens the team management area. Here you can invite new agents by email, update existing agents' details, change their role (Agent, Admin, or Owner), and deactivate accounts when team members leave. Each agent has a profile showing their name, email, role, and current availability status. Admins and Owners can also see which agents are online in real time. Team management is available to all users as a read-only view for agents; only Admins and Owners can invite, edit, or deactivate accounts. When you invite a new agent, they will receive an email with a link to set up their password and log in for the first time.

Leno AI Section: Your AI Chatbot Control Centre

The Leno AI icon opens a dedicated section for configuring and monitoring your AI agent. From here you can enable or disable Leno AI, set the languages it should respond in, train it on your knowledge base content, configure its message templates, and review its conversation history. The Leno AI section also shows you at a glance how many AI conversations have been used in the current billing period and what your limit is. If you need to make your bot hand off to a human agent under specific conditions, the Handoff settings are also accessible from the Leno AI section. This section is available to all user roles so that agents can review AI conversations and manually take over if needed.

Common Issues & Solutions

I cannot see the Dashboard icon in my navigation bar

The Dashboard section is only visible to Owners and Admins. If you are logged in as an Agent, the Dashboard icon will not appear in your navigation bar by design. To gain access, ask your account Owner to change your role to Admin from the Team section. Navigate to Team, find your name in the list, and the Owner can update your role there.

The Settings icon is missing from my sidebar

Settings is hidden from Agent accounts. Only Owners and Admins can access the Settings menu. If you need to change account-level configurations and cannot see Settings, contact your account Owner or Admin and ask them to either make the change on your behalf or upgrade your role to Admin. Role changes take effect immediately after saving.

A channel (e.g. WhatsApp) is not appearing in my Inbox sidebar

Channel views in the Inbox sidebar only appear after a channel has been successfully connected to your LenoChat account. If WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, or Instagram is missing from the Channel Views section, the integration has likely not been set up yet. An Owner can go to Settings → Integrations to connect a new channel. Once the channel is active, it will appear in the sidebar for all users automatically.

The Unassigned badge shows a high number but I cannot find the conversations

If the Unassigned count badge is high but clicking the filter shows few or no conversations, there may be a browser caching issue. Try refreshing the page with Cmd+Shift+R (Mac) or Ctrl+Shift+R (Windows) to force a full reload. If the problem persists, check whether any conversations in the Unassigned view have been assigned by another agent in the time between you opening the page and reviewing the list — real-time updates can occasionally cause a brief count mismatch.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can agents customise the order of sections in the Inbox sidebar?

Yes. The collapsible sections in the Inbox sidebar — Chat Filters, Leno AI Agent, Team Members, and Channel Views — can be reordered by dragging and dropping each section heading. The order you set is saved to your account and persists across sessions and devices. This allows each agent to organise the sidebar in the way that best suits their workflow.

Why does my team member not see the Team Members Dashboard link in the sidebar?

The Team Members Dashboard is a paid feature available on Pro and Business plans. If your account is on the Free plan, the link will be visible but will redirect to an upgrade prompt instead of the dashboard. To unlock it, go to Settings → Plans & Pricing and upgrade your subscription. Once upgraded, the dashboard is immediately accessible to all Owners and Admins.

Is there a keyboard shortcut to jump between navigation sections?

Yes. LenoChat supports keyboard shortcuts for faster navigation. You can view all available shortcuts by clicking the keyboard icon at the very bottom of the Inbox sidebar, which opens a shortcut reference dialog. Common shortcuts include pressing specific key combinations to jump to Inbox, Visitors, and other sections without using the mouse.

What happens to the navigation bar on mobile devices?

On smaller screens the primary navigation bar collapses into a bottom navigation bar with the same icons. Tapping any icon opens the corresponding section. The Inbox sidebar filters are accessed via a drawer that slides in from the left when you tap the filter icon in the top-left corner of the Inbox view. The mobile layout is fully responsive and supports all the same functionality as the desktop version.

Can I hide sections of the navigation I do not use?

Currently you cannot hide individual icons from the primary navigation bar — the items shown are determined by your account role. However, within the Inbox sidebar you can collapse any section (AI Agent, Team Members, Channel Views) by clicking its heading, and the collapsed state is remembered. This effectively hides those sections from your day-to-day view without removing them permanently.

How do I know which conversations need my attention right now?

Numbered badges on each filter item in the Inbox sidebar show unread or pending conversation counts in real time. The My Chats badge highlights conversations assigned to you that have new messages. The Unassigned badge shows the queue of customers waiting for a first response. The Escalated and Handoff badge under Leno AI Agent shows customers who have asked for human help. Checking these three badges when you start your session is the fastest way to prioritise your work.

How do I switch between different channels in the Inbox?

Expand the Channel Views section at the bottom of the Inbox sidebar and click the channel you want to focus on — Live Chats, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, or WhatsApp. The conversation list in the centre panel will immediately filter to show only messages from that channel. To return to seeing all channels at once, click 'My Chats' or 'All Assigned' at the top of the filter menu.