Workbench

A Conversation is the thread between you and this visitor. It is not an analytics Session, which is a visit cut by idle timeout.

ConsoleLive chatInbox

Three panes

The list is on the left, the thread in the middle, and the visitor drawer on the right (see Visitor context). The list has four queues:

Queue	What is in it	What you usually do
Waiting	Conversations with no owner	Click Take. After 120 seconds the wait time turns red
Mine	Open conversations you own or have taken part in	Reply and resolve
All	Every conversation that is not resolved	See a colleague's thread. Agent-only members by default see only their own and unassigned ones
Resolved	Conversations you marked resolved	Reopen, or read the satisfaction score

You can search the list by visitor code or message text, and pin conversations in Mine and All.

Above the composer you can switch to Internal note. Notes are visible only among agents. They never appear in the visitor window. Canned replies and keys are in Canned replies, notes & shortcuts.

One conversation

When it is unassigned, press A or click Take and you become the owner. If another agent writes, they join as a collaborator and the owner does not change. When a colleague has the same conversation open, the top of the thread shows who else is viewing. The visitor window receives the reply as it is sent. Click Resolve or press E to close it. The visitor can score it from 1 to 5 within 24 hours.

If the visitor writes again inside the reopen window, the same Conversation opens again. You can also click Reopen from Resolved. Transfer, auto-assignment, and who can see every queue are in Agents & routing. Limits for each message type are in Message types.

Canned replies, notes & shortcuts

You use canned replies and internal notes in the inbox. Canned replies are maintained on their own page.

Canned replies

ConsoleLive chatCanned replies

Each row has a shortcut, a title, and content. The shortcut is at most 40 characters, the title 80, the content 4000. Site-level rows are available to every agent who can handle chats. Turn on Personal (only visible to me) and only you can insert that row. It is tagged Personal in the list. Owner, Admin, and Analyst can edit site-level rows. Agent only members cannot by default. Permissions are in Agents & routing. A use count helps you drop lines nobody sends.

In the composer, type / and keep typing the shortcut or title. Choosing a row fills the box. You can still edit it, and nothing is sent until you send it.

Notes and shortcuts

In the inbox, switch the composer to Internal note. A note is at most 4000 characters. It sits on the timeline for agents only, and it is not translated out to the visitor.

When focus is not in a text field:

Key	Action
J / K or the up and down arrows	Move through the conversation list
A	Take the current conversation
E	Resolve the current conversation
/	Focus the composer and open canned replies
R or Enter	Focus the composer to reply

These keys do not fire while you are typing.

Message types

Which attachments visitors and agents can send is set separately on Messaging.

ConsoleLive chatChat settingsMessaging

Defaults & limits

Type	Default cap	Notes
Text	4000 characters	The composer refuses anything longer. Internal notes use the same cap
Image	5 MB	jpg, png, webp, gif. Visitors and agents can both send by default
Voice / audio	10 MB	Includes voice messages, up to 120 seconds each by default. Visitors and agents can both send by default
Video	50 MB	Only agents can send by default
File	20 MB	pdf, office documents, and so on. Always downloaded, never opened inline. Only agents can send by default

• You can change each per-type cap, but not above the 50 MB platform ceiling.
• Executable and script files are blocked by the platform for good. Archives (zip, rar, 7z, tar, gz) are blocked by default. Clear Blocked file extensions to allow them.
• A visitor can upload at most 100 attachments in one conversation.
• Rate: 20 messages a minute for a visitor, 120 for an agent. Further sends in that minute are refused. Messages already sent are not withdrawn.
• Both sides can unsend their own messages within the Unsend window, 180 seconds by default, settable from 30 to 3600.

Attachments are deleted with the messages when the retention period ends. See Data & retention.

Text rewritten before it is stored

If sensitive-data masking is on, card numbers, national ID numbers, and phone numbers keep only the last 4 digits before they are stored. The list preview shows the masked text too, and the inbox marks the message as masked. A link can become a preview card. Both switches are on Privacy. See Safety & anti-abuse.

After the quota is used up, a new visitor cannot open a live conversation and can only leave a message. See Billing & quotas. A conversation that is already open works as usual. After a dropped connection, recent messages are filled back in, so the visitor does not need to resend.