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What side conversations are

A side conversation is a separate thread attached to a conversation. Use it to sort something out behind the scenes: ask finance to approve a refund, or email a warehouse or a vendor about an order, without writing in the customer’s thread. There are two kinds:
  • Internal: teammates only. Use @mentions to bring more teammates in.
  • Email: an outside email address. The email goes out from the conversation’s mailbox, and replies come back into the side conversation.
The customer never sees a side conversation. It is not in the customer’s thread, the chat widget, email replies or transcripts, and the AI agent, AI drafts, HaloPilot and Ask AI do not read it. It is not added to your knowledge base and is not synced to Intercom, HubSpot or Orbit.

Starting a side conversation

Open a conversation and click the Start side conversation icon in the header, next to the status. Then:
  1. Choose Internal or Email.
  2. For an internal side conversation, pick the teammates. For an email side conversation, enter up to 10 addresses in To. The dialog shows the address the email will come from.
  3. Add a subject and the first message, then click Start (or Send email).
You need the Reply inbox permission to start, reply in or close a side conversation. Teammates who can view the inbox can read them. An email side conversation cannot be sent to the customer of the conversation, to anyone CC’d on it, to your own inbox addresses, or to an address on your suppression list.

Working in side conversations

Side conversations appear in a Side conversations block below the conversation’s messages, marked Not visible to the customer. Each one is a card with its messages and a reply box:
  • In an internal side conversation, type @ to mention a teammate. They are added to it.
  • In an email side conversation, your reply is emailed to its addresses in the same email thread.
  • Close marks a side conversation as done. Closing it never changes the conversation’s own status. Reopen brings it back, and a new emailed reply reopens it by itself.
Attachments on emailed replies are not imported yet; the card shows how many there were.

New replies

When a side conversation gets a reply you have not answered, the conversation shows up in your Mentions view:
  • for teammates on the side conversation (who started it, were added or were @mentioned), when someone else writes in it;
  • for the conversation’s assignee, when the outside party replies to an email side conversation.
It leaves your Mentions view once you reply in the side conversation or it is closed.