The Active/Paused toggle in the editor’s header (section 3) doesn’t just decide whether an agent can reply: it also determines whether it can be your tenant’s default agent. When a channel instance (WhatsApp, Telegram or Web widget) has the “Default agent” option selected in its own selector, its conversations are handled by whichever agent your tenant has marked as Active by default — or none, if you don’t have any Active agent at that moment.
To not depend on that fallback option and decide with total certainty which agent handles each channel, the direct route is to assign it explicitly from the channel’s own card, with its Assigned agent selector. This manual doesn’t repeat that procedure: the full detail, with the options table and how paused agents are distinguished, is in Manual 24 · Channels, section 9.
Note — A different agent per channel
You can assign the same agent to several channels at once, or a different one per channel — for example, a more casual-toned agent for Sales’ WhatsApp and a more formal one for Support’s. You can also mix different channel types: one for the widget and another for WhatsApp.