How do I read and reply to a conversation?

Your inbox is a two-column view: a list of conversations on the left, and the open conversation on the right. On a phone, the list and the open conversation are two separate full-screen views, tap a conversation to open it and use the back button to return to the list.

Open and read a conversation

1. Click a conversation in the list. Its messages load on the right, newest at the bottom.
2. Scroll up to see older messages. If there are more further back, a Load older button appears above the earliest loaded message.
3. Attachments, delivery status and channel icons appear inline with each message.

Reply

1. Click into the box at the bottom of the conversation. It defaults to Reply mode.
2. Type your message.
3. Press Send, or use the send button. Your message appears in the thread right away and goes out over the same channel the conversation came in on, text conversations get a text back, chat conversations get a chat reply.

On website chat, you see the visitor's name and "is typing…" (for example, "Jane is typing…") above the reply box while they type. Under your reply you see "Read" once they have seen it in the chat window.

When the channel cannot deliver a reply right now, Send is off and the reason shows above the reply box: the reply window on WhatsApp or another messaging channel has closed, or SMS is turned off for that number. You can still leave a note.

Each reply and each private note shows the name (and photo, when set) of the teammate who wrote it.

Leave a note instead

Sometimes you want to leave something for a teammate without the customer seeing it.

1. Click Note next to the Reply toggle above the message box.
2. Type your note. While Note mode is on, you will see "Internal only. Not sent to the customer." above the box, as a reminder.
3. Press Send. The note appears in the thread with a different color so your team can tell it apart from a real reply, but the customer never receives it.

Inside a note, typing @ opens a list of your teammates, pick one to mention them and they will be notified.

See the customer's notes beside the chat

The customer panel beside a conversation also shows the notes your team keeps about that customer: the pinned note first, then the three newest. That includes the notes written when someone finishes a task for them or sends a task back to the queue, so you can see where their work stands without leaving the chat.

1. To add one, type in the box under the notes and click Add note. It is saved to the customer, so it also shows on their customer page and in their Timeline. The customer never sees it.
2. Click See all notes to open the customer's Notes tab, where you can read every note, pin one, and edit your own.

Notes are part of the customer's record, so nobody on your team can delete one. If you wrote a note, you can edit it: it then shows "Edited", and the earlier wording is kept in your activity log. Only an admin can remove a note, and they have to give a reason. A removed note is hidden from the rest of the team, but admins still see a line saying who removed it and why, with a Restore button to bring it back. The notes written when someone finishes a task cannot be edited or removed by anyone.

A note you leave inside the conversation with Note mode stays with that conversation. Both kinds show together in the customer's Timeline.

Attachments

Click the paperclip icon to attach a file to your reply. It uploads and sends along with your message.

You can attach photos (JPEG, PNG, GIF or WebP), PDFs, text and CSV files, and Word and Excel documents. Other kinds of files, such as zip files or videos, cannot be attached: the file picker hides them, and if you pick one anyway, you see a message naming the file and it is not added.

You can attach up to five files to one reply, and each file can be up to 25 MB. If a file is too big, it is not added, and you see a message telling you how big it is and what the limit is. A photo (JPEG, PNG or WebP) is shrunk down automatically before it is sent, so an ordinary photo straight from your phone fits without you doing anything. Other kinds of files are sent at their original size, up to that 25 MB limit.

Email replies cannot carry attachments at all. WhatsApp and some other channels each have their own, smaller limits for photos and some file types, set by that channel, not by us. If a file is too big for the channel you are replying on, you see a message naming the limit before you send, so nothing goes out half finished.

A teammate cannot see some conversations

An admin can limit an inbox to chosen teammates on that inbox's Collaborators tab. A teammate who is not picked does not see that inbox's conversations in the inbox list or search, on the customer's page (it reads "No conversation with this contact yet." if that inbox holds the customer's only chat), in the AI status panel, or in the dashboard's Open Conversations count and Recent Conversations list. They also get no phone or browser notification of a new customer message or an AI hand-off in that inbox, and no late-reply reminder for it. Mentioning them in a note there does not add them to the conversation or notify them. Admins and the picked teammates see everything as usual. To give someone access, an admin adds them on the Collaborators tab.