Viewing and replying to side conversations



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Verified AI summary ◀▼
Side conversations let you manage discussions within tickets, involving both internal and external participants. You can view and reply to these conversations directly from the ticket interface. Replies are private, and you can use rich text formatting. Be cautious with triggers, as replies to notifications become public comments. Attachments can be added, but some limitations apply. This feature enhances collaboration without cluttering the main ticket thread.


Recipients of a side conversation can reply through email, just as they would to any
other email. Side conversations retain the original formatting of incoming emails. The
assignee on the ticket can also reply to a side conversation through the ticket from the
Zendesk Support interface. Regardless of how a response was sent, it appears in the
ticket for the assignee.
This article includes these topics:
Viewing side
conversations
Replying to side
conversations
How ticket triggers work with side conversation replies
Rich text editing in the side conversation composer


Related articles:

Side conversation resources



Viewing side conversations

From the ticket interface in Support, you can view a list of all the side
conversations on the ticket.
To view a list of side conversations on a ticket

In a ticket, open the context panel and click the Side
conversations ( ) icon. A list of side conversations on the ticket
displays.





To open an existing side conversation on a ticket

From the list of side conversations on the ticket, double-click the side
conversation that you want to open.




Replying to side conversations

The people on a side conversation can be inside or outside of your organization. You
can create side conversations on open or closed tickets. If someone replies to a
side conversation on a closed ticket, triggers won’t be run on it even if they have
side conversation conditions.
To reply to a side conversation

From the ticket interface, open the side conversation you are interested in.
Scroll up to review earlier replies in the side conversation, if needed. The
conversation opens to the first unread reply for the agent viewing
conversation. The most recent replies appear at the bottom of the side
conversation.

Update the list of recipients (if needed), add your reply and attachments, and
then click Send. Each message has its own set of recipients, which can
be edited at reply time.


Note: If a user appears as [deleted], this means that the user was suspended
from your account.

When you add attachments, you can select a file from your computer or
include one or more attachments that already exist in the ticket. Click the
attachment icon ( ) and select From computer or From
ticket.
Note: You can add attachments directly from the
ticket in most cases. Some attachments, such as attachments via WhatsApp
tickets, can’t be attached to a side conversation from a ticket. If an
attachment can't be added directly from a ticket, then you can download
the attachment and add it by selecting From
computer.

If you changed your mind and don’t want to send
the message, click the delete icon ( ). The delete icon ( ) does not delete the entire thread. Once you
start a thread, you cannot delete it.
All of the recipients on the
side conversation receive an email notification with your message. The
message being replied to is included as quoted content on outgoing emails.
This includes the creator of the side conversation, unless you manually
removed their email address. See Recommendations about side
conversations.

This notification doesn’t automatically include the assignee of the
ticket or the creator of the side conversation. See Recommendations about side
conversations.
If email signatures are allowed in your
side conversations configuration
and a signature is set up, your agent or
brand signature is automatically inserted into the message. You can remove
the signature by clicking the options menu ( ) and selecting Remove
signature.
If you have personalized replies enabled,
these settings are also included in your message. Conversations are sent
from the support address associated with the ticket, and if configured,
include the address name.





How ticket triggers work with side conversation replies

If your account includes a ticket trigger to send a notification when a side
conversation is updated, and then you reply to that notification email message
(which is not the actual side conversation, just a notification about it being
updated), then the reply will be added as a public comment on the ticket.
Zendesk doesn't recommend setting up triggers to create notifications for side
conversation activity because a reply to a notification message is a reply to
everyone on the ticket, not just the limited subset of people in a side
conversation. This is especially important if your side conversations include
sensitive information. Replies within the actual side conversation are always
private.



Rich text editing in the side conversation composer

The side conversation composer is a rich text editor that includes a toolbar with
options for editing and formatting your text. See Rich text formatting options.
The formatting options in the composer vary a little depending on the side conversation channel involved
(Email, Slack, or Ticket). For example, these are the
formatting options for email:

The composer for Email and Ticket side conversation includes
a full array of formatting options because email supports full HTML display. The
composer for Slack side conversations includes fewer formatting options
(Heading, Indent, Outdent, and Link) because Slack uses a subset of Markdown for formatting. With Slack side conversations,
you can also use Markdown-style shortcuts while typing in the composer, and they
will be converted to rich text.
Limitations with the composer include:

The composer doesn’t support inline images. You can, however, add
images as attachments.
The composer doesn't support table formatting.
If you paste complex rich text into the composer, you will likely lose
some formatting.
Rich text and Markdown formatting is not supported in email signatures that
appear in side conversations.
Rich text and Slack Markdown text may not always display as intended in
Slack.



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