Using ticket tabs to manage conversations

<body>
<p id="docs-hc-snippet" style="display: none;">This article describes how to use tabs to help manage conversations in Zendesk agent interfaces. Some channel types shown in this article may not be available in your account, depending on which channels your administrator has configured.</p>
<div class="article-banners">
<div id="docs-wmp-link">
<a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5411234991258-plan" rel="noopener" target="_blank">What's my plan?</a>
</div>

<div class="article-banner" id="support_all">
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<strong>Support</strong>
</td>
<td>Team, Professional, or Enterprise</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>

<div class="article-banner" id="suite_all">
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<strong>All Suites</strong>
</td>
<td>Team, Growth, Professional, Enterprise, or Enterprise Plus</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>

</div>

<div class="body">

<p class="p" dir="ltr">This article describes how to use tabs to help manage conversations in Zendesk
agent interfaces. Some channel types shown in this article may not be available in your
account, depending on which channels your administrator has configured.</p>
<p class="p">This article contains these sections:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic-1__ul_kny_hqw_53c">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_xxj_jqw_53c">About ticket tabs</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_f3k_mqw_53c">Reordering tabs</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_egm_tvw_53c">Viewing ticket overflow</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_xxj_jqw_53c">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">About ticket tabs</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p" dir="ltr">As a busy agent using the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408821259930" target="_blank">Zendesk Agent Workspace</a>, you may have to manage multiple
conversations at the same time. You can use tabs at the top of the interface to help you
move easily between many types of conversations (chats, phone, email, and messages). Tabs
provide important information and help you see which conversations are still active and
which conversations are waiting for your reply.</p>
<p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_xxj_jqw_53c__image_c1s_tc3_bmb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/uc_tabs_agent_workspace2.png" width="730"></p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">To help you manage your conversations, the tabs provide you with useful
information to keep you on track with your customers. </p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">Tabs can include:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_xxj_jqw_53c__ul_iq4_bb3_bmb">
<li class="li">Highlighting to show the ticket you’re actively working on. </li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Icons to show the conversation type. For example, email, chat, phone, or
message application.</li>
<li class="li">For messaging conversations and active chats:<ul class="ul" id="topic_xxj_jqw_53c__ul_g3z_4tj_fwb">
<li class="li">Requester name</li>
<li class="li">Last message and typing indicator </li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="li">For all other conversations and for ended chats:<ul class="ul" id="topic_xxj_jqw_53c__ul_ln3_ttj_fwb">
<li class="li">Ticket subject</li>
<li class="li">Ticket ID</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="li">Indicators to show <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/7908817636378" target="_blank">auto assist</a> updates (Copilot add-on).</li>
</ul>
<p class="p"><em class="ph i">Last message</em> is the first line of the last successful reply between the agent
assigned to the ticket and the requester.</p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">Here are a few examples:</p>
<div class="tablenoborder">
<table border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" class="table" frame="border" id="topic_xxj_jqw_53c__table_esb_pb3_bmb" rules="all" summary="">
<colgroup>
<col style="width:33.33333333333333%">
<col style="width:33.33333333333333%">
<col style="width:33.33333333333333%">
</colgroup>
<thead class="thead" style="text-align:left;">
<tr class="row">
<th class="entry cellrowborder" id="d48e134">Tab</th>
<th class="entry cellrowborder" id="d48e137">Description</th>
<th class="entry cellrowborder" id="d48e140">Channel</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody class="tbody">
<tr class="row">
<td class="entry cellrowborder" headers="d48e134"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_xxj_jqw_53c__image_dzq_grw_53c" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/uc_tabs_highlight_gn.png" width="200"></td>
<td class="entry cellrowborder" headers="d48e137">Highlighted tab. Shows the ticket you’re currently working on. </td>
<td class="entry cellrowborder" headers="d48e140">Any channel.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row">
<td class="entry cellrowborder" headers="d48e134"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_xxj_jqw_53c__image_zl4_xc3_bmb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/uc_tabs_new_message_gn.png" width="200"></td>
<td class="entry cellrowborder" dir="ltr" headers="d48e137">New message (red dot)</td>
<td class="entry cellrowborder" dir="ltr" headers="d48e140">Any channel type, except phone.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row">
<td class="entry cellrowborder" dir="ltr" headers="d48e134"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_xxj_jqw_53c__image_mvn_1d3_bmb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/uc_tabs_active_gn.png" width="200"></td>
<td class="entry cellrowborder" dir="ltr" headers="d48e137">Conversation is active (green dot)</td>
<td class="entry cellrowborder" dir="ltr" headers="d48e140">Any channel type, except email, API, help center, and channel
framework.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row">
<td class="entry cellrowborder" headers="d48e134"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_xxj_jqw_53c__image_hyr_t1p_bmb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/uc_tab_inactive_gn.png" width="200"></td>
<td class="entry cellrowborder" headers="d48e137">Conversation is inactive or the agent is <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408824439194#topic_j53_h5h_bhb" target="_blank">away</a> (yellow icon)</td>
<td class="entry cellrowborder" headers="d48e140">Works for chats, but not messaging, email, API, help center, and channel
framework.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row">
<td class="entry cellrowborder" dir="ltr" headers="d48e134"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_xxj_jqw_53c__image_x42_dd3_bmb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/uc_tabs_call_ended_gn.png" width="200"></td>
<td class="entry cellrowborder" dir="ltr" headers="d48e137">Conversation (or call) has ended (no color)</td>
<td class="entry cellrowborder" dir="ltr" headers="d48e140">Any channel type.<p class="p">For messaging conversations, the no-color icon
indicates the call has ended or become inactivate.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row">
<td class="entry cellrowborder" dir="ltr" headers="d48e134"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_xxj_jqw_53c__image_ipw_fd3_bmb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/uc_tab_typing_gn.png" width="200"></td>
<td class="entry cellrowborder" dir="ltr" headers="d48e137">User is typing</td>
<td class="entry cellrowborder" dir="ltr" headers="d48e140">Any channel type, except phone, email, API, help center, and channel
framework.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row">
<td class="entry cellrowborder" dir="ltr" headers="d48e134"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_xxj_jqw_53c__image_zxp_3d3_bmb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/uc_tab_unsaved_gn.png" width="200"></td>
<td class="entry cellrowborder" dir="ltr" headers="d48e137">Unsaved changes in the ticket (blue dot)</td>
<td class="entry cellrowborder" dir="ltr" headers="d48e140">Any channel type.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row">
<td class="entry cellrowborder" headers="d48e134"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_xxj_jqw_53c__image_zvn_c4f_pcc" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/uc_tabs_ai_gn.png" width="200"></td>
<td class="entry cellrowborder" headers="d48e137">Includes a message or suggestion from <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/7051314237466" target="_blank">auto assist</a>
</td>
<td class="entry cellrowborder" headers="d48e140">Email and messaging channels (Copilot)</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">Other benefits of tabs include:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_xxj_jqw_53c__ul_gfh_3c3_bmb">
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Because phone conversations and live chats typically require the most
immediate responses, tabs for these types of conversations automatically move to the right
side of the interface, so they don’t get overlooked when you’re working on multiple
conversations. </li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Channels that have “live” conversations, such as chats, phone calls, or
messages, show when a conversation is active, inactive, or ended. A conversation is
<em class="ph i">inactive</em> if no messages have been sent or received after a certain period of
time. For example, ten minutes for social messages.</li>
<li class="li">To see conversation details, hold your mouse pointer over a tab.<p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_xxj_jqw_53c__image_vy3_cvj_fwb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/uc_tabs_hover.png" width="350"></p>
</li>
<li class="li">If you’re using auto assist, the conversation details include auto assist
information.<p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_xxj_jqw_53c__image_kp4_swf_pcc" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/agent_copilot_tab_details2.png" width="350"></p>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested1" id="topic_f3k_mqw_53c">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title3">Reordering tabs</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">To help you manage conversations in the ticket interface, you can reorder the ticket tabs
using drag-and-drop. For example, you might want to move ticket tabs from important
customers to the left so you can easily access and respond to them.</p>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">To reorder ticket tabs</strong></p>
<ol class="ol" id="topic_f3k_mqw_53c__ol_vbp_ycl_jhc">
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Click the tab you want to move. </li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Hold down the mouse button and drag the tab across the top ticket bar to a new
location in the tab order. </li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Release the mouse button. </li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">You can continue to drag-and-drop the tabs until they are in the order you’d
like. </li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title4" class="topic nested1" id="topic_egm_tvw_53c">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title4">Viewing ticket overflow</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">When you have a large number of tickets open that don’t fit across the top ticket bar,
you’ll see new ticket tabs open in an overflow options menu. You can use this menu to access
open tickets or perform other tasks. By adding open ticket tabs into the options menu, it
prevents the width of the ticket tabs from compressing and making the tabs unreadable.
Tickets in the overflow menu can be moved to any tab position using drag-and-drop as
well.</p>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">To view the ticket tab overflow</strong></p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_egm_tvw_53c__ul_ndn_wdl_jhc">
<li class="li">Click the options menu icon (<img class="image" id="topic_egm_tvw_53c__image_hxh_f2l_jhc" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/ac_options_icon_gnav.png">) in the top bar. <p class="p">A list of additional tabs you have open
appears.</p>
<p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_egm_tvw_53c__image_yct_n2l_jhc" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/annoc_ticket_tabs_overflow.png" width="600"></p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">Use
this menu to select tickets or other types of tabs you have open. For example, end-user
profiles. </p>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<script id="docs-schema-markup" type="application/ld+json">{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "TechArticle",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408844108826",
"url": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408844108826",
"headline": "Using ticket tabs to manage conversations",
"description": "You can use ticket tabs to manage multiple conversations by viewing, reordering, and accessing overflow tickets in the agent interface to keep track of active and inactive interactions.",
"articleSection": "Additional ticket channels",
"datePublished": "2021-10-16T04:07:58+00:00",
"dateModified": "2026-04-30T21:54:30.083171+00:00",
"inLanguage": "en-US",
"mainEntityOfPage": {
"@type": "WebPage",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408844108826"
},
"author": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Zendesk",
"@id": "https://www.zendesk.com"
},
"publisher": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Zendesk",
"@id": "https://www.zendesk.com"
},
"isPartOf": {
"@type": "WebSite",
"name": "Zendesk Help",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/"
},
"about": {
"@type": "SoftwareApplication",
"name": "Zendesk",
"@id": "https://www.zendesk.com"
}
}</script>
</body>