Every source carries its own switch for automated replies, separate from collecting reviews, and separate from every other source in the location.
What you need: at least 1 connected source.
Where the switch is
Open Sources and find Automated replies on the source's card. It is on by default, and the hint reads "Rules and agents may reply here." Turn it off and the hint reads "Automated replies disabled." The change saves itself, with the usual indicator beside the switch.
The Automated replies switch on a source's card, turned off, with its hint underneath.
A paused source also carries a Replies paused chip on its card, so the state is visible without opening anything.
The Replies paused chip on a source card next to its health badge.
What still happens while paused
Only automated sending stops. Reviews still arrive exactly as before, and the feed fills the same way. Rules still match and still flag, assign, notify, archive and send to a webhook. Agents can still write drafts for a person to read.
The one thing withheld is the post itself: a rule action or an agent that would post a reply on the site skips it. Nothing about the rest of that rule's actions is affected.
Replying by hand, from the feed, is unaffected. Approving a draft is unaffected too, because a person pressed the button. The switch only governs automation.
What happens to the reviews from the gap
Nothing catches up. A paused source does not queue the replies it would have sent, and turning the switch back on does not send a wave of answers for everything that arrived while it was off. If one of those reviews still needs a reply, answer it by hand. The saved view Needs a reply finds them.
When to use it
Reach for this when you want the source to keep listening without automation answering for you:
- a bad week, where every reply to a low rating needs a human eye first;
- a change of owner or menu, where an agent's instructions are about to be out of date;
- handing a source to someone who is not ready to trust automation on it yet.
Turn it back on the moment the reason has passed, since nothing catches up on its own.
Other ways to slow automation down
- Switch an agent to Draft for review, so nothing it writes goes out without a person.
- Lower an agent's automatic band, so only 5-star reviews are answered on their own.
- Pause a rule from its row in Automation.
What this costs
Nothing. The switch itself is free, and pausing a source does not change what credits are spent on elsewhere in the location.