The two main causes of being forced offline are either that you were online and didn't respond to messages, or your app has auto-away enabled.
If you are receiving a message from our helpdesk saying that you are being forced offline, this is because you have received a message from a visitor (or an automated message by using the API, but have not responded. If we haven't heard any indication you're still around within 5 minutes, we then force you offline so you will not miss any more visitor chats.
The second cause is that your chat program may be setting itself away after a certain amount of time spent idle. These options vary depending on the IM client, but can usually be found in the preferences menu with a little looking.
You want technical specifics? Here they are!
- The first message on any conversation id that doesn't start with "[info]" starts a 5 minute timer for each operator the message was sent to.
- Whenever we hear from an operator for any reason (presence update, messaging that visitor, messaging another visitor) we clear the timer.
- If the timer expires we mark the operator as away and send them a helpdesk message.