Using side conversations for Slack




What's my plan?







All Suites

Professional, Enterprise, or Enterprise Plus










Support with

Collaboration add-on







Verified AI summary ◀▼
Use side conversations to start and manage Slack threads directly from a ticket. This feature allows you to communicate with team members in Slack without leaving the ticket, and all interactions are recorded as ticket events. You can delete conversations if needed. Note that there are limitations, such as character limits and unsupported features like direct messages and emoji reactions.





This feature is available only if the administrator has installed the latest version
of Slack for Zendesk Support and activated side
conversations.
As an alternative to email-based side conversations, agents can use side
conversations in a ticket to initiate and participate in Slack threads. The
Slack side conversations you initiate are viewable in the ticket and the
Slack application. Like email conversations, Slack side conversations are
recorded as ticket events, and can be used as ticket trigger conditions.


Note: If you invite your bot and external users to a Slack Connect channel owned by an external workspace, side conversations won't work. To ensure side conversations work correctly, invite your bot and external users to a Slack Connect channel owned by your workspace.

This article includes these topics:
Creating a side conversation using Slack
Deleting a Slack side conversation
About limitations and breaking the link between Support and Slack


Related articles:
About side
conversations
Side conversation
resources




Creating a side conversation using Slack

When creating a side conversation, you choose between using
email or using Slack.

Note: You may experience some delay in updates that
occur between Slack and ticket side conversations. Typically, the
delay is about 5 seconds, but can be 30 seconds or longer.
To create a side conversation using Slack

In a ticket, open the context panel and click the Side conversations
( ) icon, then click the plus sign (+).
Select Slack as the conversation type.


Enter the Slack channel and your message. You can also add
attachments.
For
more information about the composer, see Rich text editing
in the side conversation
composer.
You start a side conversation
in one Slack channel at a time. You cannot combine
Slack and email conversations. If you have a lot of
Slack channels, it may take a few moments to display
the list of available channels.
If you have
multiple Slack workspaces connected to Zendesk
Support, the workspace appears after the channel
name. For example: #support - Workspace A, #general
- Workspace A, #support - Workspace B, #general -
Workspace B, and so on.

When you’ve finished composing your message, click Send.
The team in the Slack channel can view
your message and reply to the thread directly,
without logging into Support.

The Slack replies
are automatically included in the ticket’s side
conversation.

The conversation can continue back and
forth, as long as necessary, until you get the
information you need.

When the side conversation is complete, click Mark done
in the ticket to close the side
conversation.




Deleting a Slack side conversation

To delete a Slack side conversation, you must be the agent who created
the Slack side conversation or an administrator. When you delete,
the side conversation is removed from the ticket and Slack. Side
conversation messages that are edited or deleted in Slack are also
reflected on the ticket.
To delete a Slack side conversation

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

Select the side conversation you want to delete. You can only
delete Slack side conversations. You cannot delete
email side conversations.

Click the options menu icon ( ) on the right side of the
conversation, then select Delete.

When a confirmation message appears, click Delete to
confirm the deletion.




About limitations and breaking the link between Support and Slack

Slack side conversations have the following limitations:
When a Slack channel is shared across multiple
workspaces, a side conversation can be created, and
the message will arrive in Slack, but replies will
not be sent to the ticket.
Only ticket comments with 1,000 characters or less can
be inserted into a Slack side conversation.
Slack @mentions are supported, but they don't
autocomplete. You must enter the user's Slack member
ID in angle brackets. For example
<@U1H63D8SZ>. To find an
agent's Slack member ID, go to the agent's profile
in Slack. Click the options menu ( ), then select Copy member
ID.
Alternatively, you can include @here
to notify everyone currently logged in or @channel
to alert every channel member.


Rich text
formatting and Slack Markdown text entered
in the side conversation composer may not always
display as intended in Slack.


The following Slack features are not supported:

Direct messages As a workaround, the administrator
can set up private Slack channels with only one
member, such as #lkelly-private, and add them to the
Slack for Zendesk integration.

Emoji reactions
Typing indicators

If the link breaks between Zendesk and Slack, for example, if an admin
removes the Zendesk app from a Slack channel or if they archive or
delete a Slack channel that you used for side conversations, you can
still open and view these side conversations in a ticket, but you
can no longer use that Slack channel to send or receive updates to
side conversations.



//
const fast_path_style = document.createElement('style');
fast_path_style.innerHTML = `#article-body .fastpath{font-size:.9em;background-color:#f3f3f3;border:1px solid #d3d3d3;padding:10px 10px 8px;margin-bottom:16px}#article-body .fastpath::before{content:none!important}`;
document.head.appendChild(fast_path_style);
//

//
const banner_style = document.createElement('style');
banner_style.innerHTML = `#styled-article-body{padding:0 0 0}#article-body #docs-wmp-link{text-align:right;font-size:.8em}#article-body .article-banners{margin-bottom:1rem}#article-body .article-banner{border:1px solid #ded7ca;background-color:#f6f0e6;margin:0 0 3px;line-height:1}#article-body .article-banner table{border-collapse:collapse;border:none;margin:0;width:auto}#article-body .article-banner td{padding:8px 6px 8px;border:none;font-size:.85em}#article-body .article-banner td:nth-child(2){border-left:1px solid #d0c9bd}#article-body .article-banner strong{font-weight:400;text-shadow:0 0 1px rgba(0,0,0,.5);letter-spacing:.5px}@media (min-width:1600px){#article-body .article-banner td{font-size:.8em}#article-body .docs-wmp-link{font-size:.7em}}`;
document.head.appendChild(banner_style);
//

//
const ai_summary_style = document.createElement('style');
ai_summary_style.innerHTML = `#styled-article-body{padding:0 0 0}#article-body #docs-ai-summary{background-color:#f3f3f3;border:1px solid #d3d3d3;padding:10px 10px 6px;margin-bottom:16px}#article-body #docs-ai-summary #docs-ai-summary-toggle{font-size:.9em;font-weight:700;margin-bottom:4px;cursor:pointer;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center}#article-body #docs-ai-summary #docs-ai-summary-toggle #up-triangle{margin-left:auto;padding-right:10px;display:none}#article-body #docs-ai-summary #docs-ai-summary-toggle #down-triangle{margin-left:auto;padding-right:10px}#article-body #docs-ai-summary #docs-ai-summary-content{font-size:.9em;padding-left:25px;padding-right:25px;margin-bottom:12px}`;
document.head.appendChild(ai_summary_style);

const toggleAISummary = () => {
const summary = document.getElementById("docs-ai-summary-content");
const upTriangle = document.getElementById("up-triangle");
const downTriangle = document.getElementById("down-triangle");
if (summary.style.display === "none") {
summary.style.display = "block";
upTriangle.style.display = "none";
downTriangle.style.display = "inline";
} else {
summary.style.display = "none";
upTriangle.style.display = "inline";
downTriangle.style.display = "none";
}
};

document.getElementById("docs-ai-summary-toggle").addEventListener("click", toggleAISummary);
//

