# Listen to live conversations or read live chats in Amazon Connect
<a name="monitor-conversations-howto"></a>

Before you can listen to live conversations or read live chats, the Amazon Connect admin needs to [enable](monitor-conversations.md) the feature, [assign you permissions](monitor-conversations-permissions.md), and ensure you are assigned to a routing profile that supports the channel being monitored. After that's done, you can do these steps. 

For information about how many people can listen in to a conversation or follow a chat, see [Amazon Connect feature specifications](feature-limits.md).

1. Log in to Amazon Connect with a user account that is assigned the **CallCenterManager** security profile, or that has the **Real-time contact monitoring** security profile permission.

1. Open the Contact Control Panel (CCP) by choosing the phone icon in the top-right corner of your screen. You'll need the CCP open to connect to the conversation. 

1. To choose the agent conversation you want to monitor, in Amazon Connect choose **Analytics and optimization**, **Real-time metrics**, **Agents**. The following image shows the **Real-time metrics** page, with an arrow pointing to the **Agents** option.  
![\[The real-time metrics page, the Agents option.\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/connect/latest/adminguide/images/real-time-metrics-agents.png)

1. To monitor voice conversations: Next to the names of agents in a live voice conversation, there is an eye icon. Choose the icon to start monitoring the conversation. The following image shows the eye icon next to the **Voice** channel.  
![\[The real-time metrics page, the Channels column, the voice channel.\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/connect/latest/adminguide/images/monitor-call-icon.png)
**Note**  
**Firefox users**: When using the Firefox browser to monitor and barge, you need to switch to the CCP tab after starting to monitor. The CCP conforms to Firefox microphone usage guidance, and only has access to connect to your microphone when CCP tab is in focus.

   When you're monitoring a conversation, the status in your CCP changes to **Monitoring**.

1. To monitor chat conversations: For each agent you'll see the number of live chat conversations they're in. Click on the number. Then choose the conversation you want to start monitoring. 

   When you're monitoring a conversation, the status in your CCP changes to **Monitoring**.

1. To stop monitoring the conversation, in the CCP choose **End call** or **End chat**.

   When the agent ends the conversation, monitoring stops automatically.