Take, give back and hand over conversations

Holding a conversation tells your team you're answering it. Each conversation is held by one person at a time, or by nobody. You can take a conversation, give it back for anyone to pick up, or hand it to a named colleague.

Conversations can also be given to agents automatically, if your organisation has set up queues. See Teams & Routing.

Take a conversation

1. Go to Inbox and open the conversation. The Unassigned view lists the ones nobody holds.
2. In the conversation header, click Take this conversation (the person-with-a-plus icon).

You'll see "You are holding this conversation." The row in the list now says Held by you, and the conversation appears in Assigned to me.

You can also take it from the assignee menu: click the button showing who holds it (for example Unassigned), then choose Take this conversation.

If someone got there first

If a colleague took the conversation a moment before you, you'll see a notice naming them: it's theirs now. Ask them, or hand it over if you really need it.

If you see "This conversation belongs to a department you are not in, so you cannot take it", the conversation is in a queue for a department you're not a member of. A supervisor can hand it to you, or an Owner or Admin can add you to that department in Settings › Teams & Routing.

Give a conversation back

When you can't finish a conversation, give it back so anyone can pick it up.

1. Open the conversation you're holding.
2. In the header, click Give it back (the person-with-a-minus icon), or choose Give it back from the assignee menu.

The conversation becomes unassigned and shows in the Unassigned view.

You can only give back a conversation you hold. To move one that a colleague holds, hand it over instead. That records who is taking it.

Hand a conversation to a colleague

1. Open the conversation.
2. In the header, click the assignee menu (it shows the current holder, or Unassigned).
3. Under Colleagues, choose Hand to and the person's name.

To explain why you're handing it over:

1. In the assignee menu, choose Hand over with a note….
2. In Colleague, choose who is taking it. They must be an active member of your organisation.
3. Optionally, fill in Why (optional). It's recorded on the handover so the next person has the context.
4. Click Hand over.

You'll see "Handed to" and their name. A line in the thread records who assigned the conversation to whom.

Handing over to a team or queue

The Inbox hands conversations to people, not to teams. To send a waiting conversation to a different queue, use Route on the Team workload board.

Related

• Resolve and reopen
• Inbox views, filters and search
• Roles and permissions