Why a Co-browse Session Ends

A Co-browse session doesn't stay open forever — a handful of events, triggered by the customer, the agent, or the system itself, close it automatically. Knowing these reasons helps make sense of the "Session ended" message the moment it appears.

Possible reasons

• The customer ended it: the visitor clicked "Stop sharing" in their browser.
• You ended it: you used the "Hang up" button in the co-browse panel.
• The customer declined consent: when asked for permission, they said no.
• Time limit reached: every session has a fixed 10-minute cap. You'll see countdown warnings at 60 and 30 seconds remaining before the cutoff.
• Disconnect: if no activity signal (heartbeat) arrives from the visitor for more than 30 seconds — tab closed, connection dropped, laptop closed — the system considers the session lost.
• Administrative shutdown: in rare cases, an Omnifox admin can force-end a session.

What you'll see in the panel

Each reason has its own message: "Session ended — time limit reached," "The customer ended the session," or the generic "Session ended," depending on the case.

Example

Marco is walking a customer through a form on Webchat. At the 9-minute mark, "60 seconds left" appears; at 9:30, "30 seconds left"; at the 10-minute mark the session cuts off on its own with "Session ended — time limit reached." If he still needs to help, he simply starts a new session.

Tips

• If the customer's connection drops suddenly, wait a few seconds — the system automatically tries to reconnect before declaring the session over.
• For longer walkthroughs, give the customer a heads-up about the 10-minute cap so an abrupt cutoff doesn't catch them mid-task.

Troubleshooting

If a session ends right after it starts with no obvious cause, check the visitor's connection — it was likely a "disconnect" from a weak signal.