​

Work conversations

The Conversations workspace is where agents handle customer issues across chat, email, voice, and related follow-up. Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp messages use the Chat lane. See Support customers on Facebook Messenger, Support customers on Instagram, and Support customers on WhatsApp for account setup, handoff, files, and each session’s separate 24-hour reply window. Facebook post comments use a separate human workflow within Chat. Take over the session, select Public reply > Comment, choose the exact received comment and send plain text. No public attachments or automatic Concierge Agent replies are available. Internal notes stay private.

​

Prerequisites

Before you work conversations:

• You can sign in to the correct tenant.
• Your user has permission to view conversations.
• You are assigned an agent role if you need to receive routed work.
• You are Ready when you want to receive new routing offers.

​

Use views to find work

The Views tab shows conversation lists. Common views include:

• My Conversations for work assigned to you.
• Available Live Conversations for shared live work that can be opened without a routing offer. It defaults to Created in the last seven days (UTC), oldest first; adjust or remove the Created filter to see older work. Team membership and language do not automatically filter this list. Stage distinguishes Concierge, Queueing and Waiting for team follow-up; Waiting has a violet row and hourglass icon. See stage meanings and membership and Owner/Admin repair.
• Open Conversations for active tenant work.
• Team views for teams you belong to.
• Shared or personal views configured by administrators.

Use Edit in the Views panel to reorder visible views for your own workspace. Your order follows you for the same tenant and does not change anyone else’s default order. Use Add view to open the personal view dialog without leaving Conversations when your role allows personal view management. Each team’s automatically available view is its inbox of Open team-owned work, including All Agents. Team Leads assign that work manually. With optional direct email assignment enabled, new escalated emails go to the selected team’s longest-waiting Ready agent; otherwise they remain in its inbox. Not Ready and Off Duty agents do not receive new automatic email assignments. Existing inbox work is not automatically assigned when an agent becomes Ready. Use search, status filters, priority filters, pending filters, sorting, and column visibility to scan the queue. Available Live Conversations also lets you filter by an exact numeric CSAT score. Excluding a score keeps conversations without a score. Conversation stays visible even when an older saved layout hid it; your other column preferences remain unchanged. In Available Live Conversations, excluding High, Urgent, or Low keeps conversations displayed as Normal, including those without an explicit priority. Hover over or focus Last Updated to see the exact update date and time in your browser’s time zone. The forthcoming shared Search and Views table uses compact calendar dates and adds Created, Resolved and Closed date columns, plus saved per-View columns and sorting. Rows will also show a full-width summary, linked Contact, conversation Organization and Category, with conversation tags on their own line. Optional metadata is omitted when absent.

​

Open a conversation

Selecting a row opens the conversation in a workspace tab. Conversation tabs stay inside the CXP app, so you can keep several conversations open without using browser tabs. For a chat conversation without a subject, CXP uses the customer’s first nonblank message as its initial subject. Later messages keep that subject. If the AI Assistant hands off the conversation, the generated summary updates the subject to describe the request. Long initial subjects are shortened, while the complete message remains in the timeline. Select the contact name or email beneath the conversation subject to open that customer’s Contact 360 record as another workspace tab. Your conversation tabs remain open and continue receiving activity while you review or edit the contact. When a new Chat connects you to a customer, CXP alerts you at the same join that announces your participation to the customer. Subsequent customer Chat messages also alert you while you are not viewing that conversation. If you closed its workspace tab or never opened it, CXP opens it in the background and marks it unread without switching away from your current work. Closing a tab does not end or mute an active Chat. The red unread marker can play a short message sound when it first appears. More activity stays silent while that conversation remains unread. Browser-tab attention stays on while any conversation tab has a red unread marker. A conversation you are viewing in the focused, visible browser stays silent; selecting it in a hidden browser or leaving it selected while visiting another page does not suppress alerts. The marker clears when you view the conversation. You can change cue, sound, and browser-tab attention settings in My Profile. These cues require a connected CXP session and follow your browser’s audio rules. The detail workspace includes:

• Conversation summary and customer context
• Timeline of messages, events, and channel activity
• Status, priority, category, tags, assignment, associated team, and custom fields
• Contact context
• Realtime media handling, Agent Assist, and CSAT in the right rail
• A handling-time action beside History, with a breakdown of recorded responsibility
• Channel-specific composers or controls when available

If required custom fields are empty when you select Resolved or Close, CXP opens the Conversation details editor, highlights all missing fields, and moves focus to the first one. Fill in the highlighted fields and select Save, then retry your status change. Saving fields does not change status. The same correction flow appears when Agent Assist Apply includes a resolve or close action. While you edit, incoming updates refresh fields you have not changed. Your unsaved edits stay in place, and saving sends only your changes. Agent-authored timeline rows show the agent’s current profile photo. If the photo is unavailable or cannot be loaded, CXP shows the agent’s initials. Files accepted from web chat appear in a Files uploaded system row. Use the attachment control on that row to preview or download the stored file through the authenticated conversation view. When CXP analyzes a file uploaded through web chat, the generated transcript row is labeled Upload Analysis so it is not mistaken for text typed by the customer. Its smaller text appears on a subtle gray background. The analysis is collapsed to three lines with a trailing ellipsis by default; use the darker chevron to expand or collapse the full content. For analyzed inbound email attachments, CXP keeps the customer’s complete email visible and places generated content below an Attached files analysis divider. Each result begins with its attachment filename, and separate files have visible dividers between their results. Long analysis is limited to three lines initially. Use its chevron to expand or collapse the full bounded analysis; short analysis has no unnecessary toggle. The email’s attachment tiles remain directly below the message. Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp messages also keep their caption and accepted files together. Any generated image or PDF analysis is labeled separately; a file that cannot be accepted has an unavailable-file notice. Open the attachment tiles using your normal conversation access.

​

Invite help into live work — Coming soon

Conference will let an admitted agent invite another agent into all active Chat and Voice interactions while preserving assignment. Invitations appear in a global banner, so the recipient can respond without first opening the conversation. The picker will search Online colleagues by name or team, with All online, On duty and Ready filters; Online Off Duty colleagues remain selectable. See Conference for prerequisites, Accept/Decline, and uncertain connection results.

​

Review conversation handling

Select the clock and duration immediately before History in the conversation header to open Conversation Handling on the right. The header and panel show agent handling time according to the conversation’s status: Active agent time can advance each second while you view the workspace. Search and reports calculate Elapsed HT when results load. Missing elapsed handling shows zero; missing recorded Handle Time shows a dash. See Conversation Handle Time Reporting for calculation rules, Pending behavior, and how to use both measures in reports. The main duration stays visible while you scroll through the AI, Team, Agent, and Overall breakdown and Handling history. Each history row shows who was responsible, the state, start time and cause, and duration. When available, the Pending label also identifies who the conversation is waiting on. Pending intervals remain in the history but do not add to the handling totals. Handling history starts with the newest interval. Use the sort control on its right to switch between newest-first and oldest-first order. In this example, AI handles 45 seconds, a team 75 seconds, and an agent two intervals of 120 and 180 seconds. Agent Handle Time is 5m 0s and overall handling is 7m 0s. The intervening one-minute Pending period brings the full timeline to eight minutes without increasing either handling total. Select a history row’s details icon to inspect who was responsible, its exact start and end times, the reason it began, and any available Pending details. Close the popup to return to Handling history, then close the panel or press Escape to return to the conversation.

​

Review detailed conversation history

Select History in the conversation header when you need more detail than the customer-facing timeline provides. CXP opens a right-side Conversation History drawer and combines stored messages with recorded conversation events in oldest-first order. This view includes ordinary customer and agent messages as well as hidden developer, system, tool-call, and tool-result records. Compact rows show the time, actor when available, and the most useful message text, tool outcome, or conversation change. Tool Calls include their function names; Tool Results and Tool Call Audits have explicit titles. CSat rows show a red (1–4), yellow (5–7), or green (8–10) score beside the title. Select a row to expand its bounded JSON record, or use its copy action to copy that record. The drawer displays Loading History … while it automatically retrieves the available pages. After loading, use Search conversation history to filter the loaded messages and events. Search is case-insensitive but matches complete words or IDs: export matches EXPORT, while expo does not match export. Multiple search words must all occur in the same record. Matching rows remain in oldest-first order. The top-right icon group lets you refresh, download, or close the drawer. Hover or focus an icon to see its label. Refresh conversation history reloads all pages and rebuilds Search. Download conversation history JSON saves the complete loaded messages and events as one ordered JSON array; an active search does not limit the file. Automatic loading stops at 20,000 records, 50 MiB of JSON, or 100 page requests. If more history exists, CXP says that complete Conversation History is too large and cannot be loaded in full. The accepted portion remains searchable and refreshable, individual records can still be expanded or copied, and Download is unavailable because the history is incomplete. There is no manual continuation control in this state. For a named contact, the icon-only history action beside the contact name opens the list of other conversations for that customer. For an anonymous contact, the header shows a plain Anonymous label. Select Set another contact to open Change contact, then choose an existing contact or create a new one. This also works when the details panel is collapsed and requires permission to update conversations. After you select a contact, the header shows the contact link and customer history action.

​

Accept routed work

When CXP routes live work to you, an incoming offer appears in the app shell. You can:

• Accept to take ownership.
• Decline to return the work to routing.

If you are not Ready, CXP should not offer you new routed work. After-hours AI Assistant handoffs appear as team follow-up assignments rather than incoming live offers. The conversation keeps its actual chat or voice channel, even when the contact has an email address. A later authorized agent takeover can move that team assignment to the agent.

​

Assign a conversation

Open Assignee to choose from a team-and-agent hierarchy. All Agents contains every active agent, and each configured team contains its active members. An agent can appear in more than one team. Select either a team or an agent under a team, then select Update to apply the change; closing the dialog before Update discards the draft selection. Selecting an agent under a configured team records both the agent assignment and that team association. Selecting an agent under All Agents assigns the agent without an associated team. Selecting a team row assigns the conversation to that team. Use the separate Team control to change the association without changing the current assignee, or choose No team to clear it. Search matches both team and agent names. A matching agent remains visible under every team where that agent belongs.

​

Follow a conversation with another agent

Use Followers in the Conversation controls rail to manage notification coverage without changing the conversation’s assignee.

• Select the eye control to follow or unfollow the conversation yourself. You need permission to view conversations and a configured work email address.
• If you can both view and update conversations, select Add follower. Search active agents by name or email, then select an eligible agent. An agent with a Viewer role can still be added when they can view conversations and have a configured email address, but Viewers cannot add or remove followers for others.
• Open the follower list and select Remove beside a different agent to remove them. If a former user’s name is no longer available, CXP shows their stored ID so an authorized agent can still remove that follower.

Adding or removing a follower does not change assignment or send a notification by itself. It affects only later eligible conversation notifications. If the agent list or eligibility changes while you are choosing someone, CXP shows the server result and leaves the conversation unchanged when the addition cannot be completed.

​

Update lifecycle

Use conversation status to reflect the current state:

• Use Open for active work.
• Use Pending when waiting on the customer, another party, or a configured reason.
• Use Resolved when the issue appears solved but should remain reopenable.
• Use Closed when the conversation is finalized.

Closing a conversation with an active web chat also ends that chat. The customer sees that the agent left, and the current widget connection closes so their next message can start or resolve to the appropriate conversation. For Messenger, Instagram direct messages, and WhatsApp, Resolved also ends the active session and its Chat memberships. CXP sends the agent-left notice only to those ended sessions, within each session’s reply window. A later Close does not repeat that notice. Pending keeps the session active; a new customer message after Resolve starts a fresh session under your organization’s normal conversation rules. See Messenger session handling, Instagram session handling, and WhatsApp session handling. For Facebook and Instagram comments, Resolved releases active agent workload while retaining the comment session; Close and End Chat end it. Reopening Resolved or Closed work restores the most recent comment session so you can follow up on the same received comment. See the Facebook and Instagram comment lifecycle and reopening limits. When Chat or Voice is active, the Realtime media panel identifies the participating agents and their media connections. Assignment remains separate: the assignee is responsible for the case, but other admitted agents can reply in their Chats. Waiting routed work shows Concierge with Queued. Use the single Disconnect button to leave your captured Chats and your local call immediately, without a confirmation dialog. Chats with another agent continue. If you leave the last Chat membership but another agent remains in its linked widget call, the widget stays open for that call. Customer text remains in the shared transcript; the Voice-only agent can answer verbally but needs Chat participation to send text. Once the linked call ends, Chat ends unless an agent has joined Chat meanwhile. Disconnect remains available across browser tabs, including when the tab that held your Voice connection has closed. Assignment does not change. Chat and Voice finish independently; retrying a partial failure targets only the unfinished connections from that attempt, not a Chat or call you joined later. If an older or interrupted handoff left missing Chat connections, use Take Over when CXP offers that repair. It does not replace another participating agent or give observers permission to join an ongoing call. An absent assignee does not make the remaining agents’ memberships invalid. When a customer starts a new widget chat after an earlier chat ended, CXP can reuse the same non-closed conversation while creating a distinct chat interaction. The new interaction begins with the AI Assistant even if an agent handled the earlier interaction. If the customer needs human help again, CXP creates or joins the conversation’s current live route. Opening or reconnecting the widget without customer input creates neither a new conversation nor another Chat in an existing conversation. After an earlier Chat ends, the customer can return without reopening Pending work or appearing as new live work. A message, submitted form, upload, or explicit voice start can start the next Chat. Successful customer text, form or upload reopens Pending through the ordinary customer-input lifecycle. Voice attempts may have no transcript yet. Pending conversations can include Pending On and Pending Reason metadata so the queue explains why work is waiting.

​

Replies during a brief reconnection

When a web-chat connection is replaced while a reply is being prepared, CXP keeps the original customer turn running and delivers its committed reply to the replacement connection. The customer does not need to send the message again. This recovery requires the same server session to remain available within its reconnection grace period; it does not recover replies after that session is lost. Reconnection alone does not create another conversation or reset chat inactivity.

​

Failed web-chat startup

If a new web chat never receives its first customer input and the customer has not connected to Voice, CXP ends that failed chat after a startup timeout. The customer sees “This chat couldn’t be started. Please start a new chat and try again.” The widget connection closes so they can start a new chat. An empty conversation with no other active work is resolved and closed. Other active interactions, human ownership, and routing work protect the conversation. A conversation with messages, including an AI welcome, follows the ordinary automatic-resolution rules. This startup cleanup is separate from the configured chat idle timeout.

​

Correct the conversation contact

If a conversation is associated with the wrong customer, open Contact in the left controls rail and select Set another to open Change contact. CXP initially shows the ten contacts updated most recently. Search by name, email address, or phone number, choose a result, and then select Select. If the customer does not have a contact yet, use Create New; CXP assigns the new contact after it is created successfully. In Simple conversation mode, a contact can have only one non-closed conversation. If the selected contact already has one, CXP leaves the current conversation unchanged and tells you which conversation to merge into. In Advanced mode, the contact change proceeds even when the contact has another non-closed conversation. An active Messenger, Instagram, or WhatsApp session prevents changing to a different retained Contact, even after its reply window expires. If the two records represent the same person, use Contact consolidation after verifying identity. Ending a session does not redirect its original Messenger or Instagram identity or WhatsApp phone relationship to another Contact. Public-comment Contacts cannot be changed, and ordinary conversations cannot select them as replacement Contacts. They also cannot participate in a Conversation merge, even after their Chat ends. The reserved Anonymous contact is not available in the selector. When the current conversation is still anonymous, the contact card shows only an A avatar and Anonymous until a real contact is assigned. To edit the current contact, select the pencil action labeled Edit beside the contact name. Anonymous contacts have no edit action.

​

Merge duplicate conversations

If two active conversations represent the same customer issue, agents with update permission can merge the current conversation into another conversation. Use Merge from the conversation detail header, search for the target conversation, review the warning, and confirm. Merge is not reversible. The current conversation is closed, and work continues in the selected target conversation. A source conversation with active Messenger, Instagram, or WhatsApp must share the target’s primary Contact. Consolidate genuine duplicate Contacts first if they represent the same person. A permitted merge preserves the active social session and access to its stored files in the surviving conversation. CXP adds an internal System merge note to the target, then places the source conversation’s eligible visible history after that note as one merge block. Source rows keep their original event time in the timeline. Voice call recordings and web chat uploaded files from the source are available from the target conversation after merge. The closed source conversation remains as a read-only record that points to the target. If the source has a summary, CXP carries it into the target summary; if the target has no subject, CXP uses the source subject. Merge-note conversation links open conversation tabs inside the same CXP browser tab. If the source conversation is Open and the target is Pending or Resolved, CXP reopens the target to Open as part of the merge. This also applies when a returning customer’s new web chat is automatically merged into their existing non-closed conversation.

​

Reply and take notes

For an Open, Pending, or Resolved conversation, Public reply offers only the channels that can currently reach the contact:

• Email is available when the contact has a primary or secondary email address.
• Chat is available for Open and Pending conversations only while the conversation has an active Chat you belong to and you have reply permission. You do not have to be the assignee. Each reply goes to all active Chats you belong to in this conversation, without a Chat selector. It does not go to a Chat you have not joined. Resolving ends active web-chat and direct-message sessions; Facebook and Instagram comments use the separate lifecycle described above.
• Phone call is available only when tenant outbound voice is enabled and the Open conversation, Contact phone, direct assignment, permission, and current voice state are eligible. Selecting it opens the right-rail Softphone without dialing; dialing starts only with Place call.

If no public channel is available, CXP selects Internal note and disables Public reply. Otherwise, CXP initially selects Public reply. Depending on channel and assignment, you may be able to:

• Send public replies.
• Add internal notes.
• Reply to email with editable recipients.
• Include email attachments.
• Attach allowed files to an active web chat, Messenger, Instagram, or WhatsApp Chat you belong to, or paste, select, and drop allowed images.
• Use voice controls for active calls.

Internal notes are for agent and team context. Public replies are sent to the customer through the selected channel. Sending does not change the current conversation status. A web-chat reply while Pending restarts the normal chat idle timer; an Email reply while Pending or Resolved keeps that status. A Resolved conversation’s existing automatic-close schedule also remains in effect. Closed conversations do not show the composer. Use the Conversation controls rail to assign or take over work when sending requires it. After a successful takeover of active Chat, CXP selects Chat and focuses its composer. It does the same when an active Chat is newly attached to a Voice conversation you already handle, unless you are writing an Internal note or explicitly selected another reply channel. Chat stays unavailable when you have no active Chat membership. For an active web chat you belong to, select Attach to add a file, or paste or drop an image into the composer. You can send attachments with text or as an attachment-only reply. Remove an attachment from the draft before sending if you no longer want to share it. Images appear inline in the customer widget; other files appear as links using the original filename. Customer attachment links and image previews remain available for 24 hours after the message is sent. In the conversation transcript, sent images and files use the same compact attachment tiles as email attachments. Select an image tile to open the expanded authenticated preview or download the image. Chat images are inserted individually. Side-by-side image rows and email signatures are not available in Chat. For Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp, each outgoing text or file part must fit within the exact session’s 24-hour window from its latest valid saved customer message. The session can remain active after that window expires. Files use supported native media or labeled, expiring download links. Native Instagram login uses links for audio, video, and PDF. Review internal delivery failures before retrying: partial or unknown sends can already have reached the customer, and a manual resend can duplicate them. See the Messenger file guidance, Instagram file guidance and WhatsApp file guidance. For Facebook and Instagram comments, use Reply to comment and Post reply. Wait for the full history to load; new comments preserve your draft target. An unavailable target requires a deliberate replacement. Reply submitted confirms application acceptance, not provider delivery. Comment replies have no DM window, are text only with emoji support, and never include lifecycle notices. Instagram shows a placement hint when a reply goes under the selected comment’s parent. The original Facebook or Instagram post loads above the first comment, with a link and retry option if its preview is unavailable. Post context stays available in closed history. See the Facebook and Instagram public-comment workflows. In web chat, the customer widget distinguishes AI Assistant replies, replies from the assigned human agent, and lifecycle notices such as an agent joining or leaving the chat. Human replies show the agent’s public display name when available, while lifecycle notices use a separate system presentation. The same presentation is retained if the widget reconnects and recovers missed messages. Use Cmd+Enter on macOS or Ctrl+Enter on Windows/Linux to activate the composer Send action from the keyboard.

​

Use Agent Assist

When Agent Assist is available for an assigned conversation, it appears in the right rail. You can ask questions about the conversation and review suggested actions. Agent Assist does not send messages to customers. Suggested replies and notes must be reviewed and applied by an agent.

​

Create a manual conversation

If you have conversation creation permission, use New conversation from the Conversations workspace or Contact 360. Manual conversations can capture:

• Subject
• Contact
• Organization
• Status
• Priority
• Assignee
• Category
• Summary

After creation, CXP opens the new conversation in the Conversations workspace.

​

Distribute a team queue — Coming soon

Team Leads, Admins and Owners can use Auto-Assign in a Team View when direct assignment to Ready agents is enabled. Filter the queue, review the preview and start. Only Open conversations assigned to that View’s team are processed; Pending work remains for manual action. See Assign a team queue for progress, Stop, results and using another tab.

​

Forward selected email — Coming soon

Use an email message’s three-dot menu and choose Forward to prepare its editable content, attachments and embedded images for explicitly entered recipients. Sending creates a separate thread in the same conversation. Forwarding activity does not generate automated customer notices; normal internal notifications, AI visibility and conversation lifecycle remain. See Forward email for the workflow and draft behavior.

​

Transfer your participation

Select Transfer beside the conversation’s media controls to hand your active Chat and Voice participation to another agent. Completion is automatic after acceptance and readiness. External Transfer supports Open, Voice-only conversations. See Transfer a live conversation for assignment rules, connection feedback and returning through a new Conference invitation.