3. Manage conversation statuses
Conversation statuses help your team separate active work, follow-ups and completed interactions. Choose the status that reflects what needs to happen next, rather than using deletion to tidy the inbox.
Open the thread in Inbox. Members can change statuses in their accessible workspaces; deleting a conversation requires an Admin.
Status reference
| State | Entry action | Visibility | Response behaviour | Exit and reversibility |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open | Incoming conversation, Reopen, or waking from snooze | Open inbox lists, subject to filters and ownership | AI or humans respond according to handling and channel rules | Close, Snooze or admin deletion. |
| Snoozed | Snooze | Select Snoozed or All in the status filter | Automatic AI replies pause while snoozed; assignment and handling flags are retained | Customer message, scheduled wake, manual Reopen or Close. |
| Closed | Close or an automatic closure | Closed or All status filter | AI handling is turned off; staff must reopen before sending a reply | Staff Reopen; an email reply may reopen its thread. |
| Deleted | Admin Delete action | Removed from conversation lists | No further use of the deleted thread | Permanent; no restore action. |
Deleted is an action outcome rather than an ordinary status you can filter in Inbox. Closing keeps the thread. Deleting removes its messages, attached files and associated records, including report data tied to the conversation.
Snooze
- Open the thread and select Snooze.
- Choose In 1 hour, Tomorrow, Next week, Until the customer replies, or a custom date and time with Set.
- Find it later using the Snoozed status filter.
- Select Reopen to bring it back manually before the trigger occurs.
Snooze timing
- Tomorrow: 24 hours from now.
- Next week: seven days from now.
- Custom time: uses your browser's local date and time.
Scheduled wakeups are checked once per minute, so the conversation may return shortly after the chosen time rather than at the exact second.
Any accepted new customer message in the snoozed thread returns it to Open and clears the snooze deadline. Until the customer replies has no scheduled deadline. A timed snooze can also end early when the customer writes.
Handling while snoozed
Snoozing does not remove the assignee or automatically hand the conversation to someone else. It preserves the AI-handling flag, but AI processing requires an open conversation. Once reopened, normal eligibility rules apply. A timed wake does not create a new customer message.
Snooze notifications
The unanswered-conversation check applies to open, human-handled conversations, so a snoozed conversation is excluded while snoozed. There is no separate snooze-ended notification setting. After waking, an unanswered conversation may qualify for the normal unanswered notification. Do not use snooze as a promise that every notification type is muted.
Closure and reopening
Select Close when the interaction is complete. Select Reopen to continue as staff. Reopening does not automatically return ownership to AI. If that is appropriate, use Hand back to AI separately.
After closure, customers start new webchat and WhatsApp conversations rather than reopening the old thread. Email replies can reopen their matching thread where customer email is enabled. Human conversations can auto-close after the workspace's inactivity period; zero disables that workspace rule. AI-handled conversations have a separate 24-hour inactivity closure rule when the last conversational message was from AI.
Report effects
Snoozed conversations do not count as currently Open in Overview, but their creation can still count in date-based activity. Reopening clears the stored close time, which can change closure-based figures. Deletion removes the underlying conversation from reports. Use the report definitions before comparing a historical count with today's inbox.
Related guides: Everyday management, Handoff, Reports.