Activating and configuring side conversations

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<p id="docs-ai-summary-content">Activate side conversations to manage separate discussions within tickets, involving external participants if needed. Customize settings to integrate email, Slack, and Microsoft Teams for broader communication. Enable child tickets and configure context panel views to streamline workflows. Use signatures for professional communication. On Enterprise plans, control access via custom roles and set trigger conditions to stay updated on side conversation activities.</p>
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<div class="note fastpath">
<span class="fastpathtitle">Location: </span> <span class="ph">Admin Center &gt; Workspaces &gt; Agent tools &gt; Side
conversations</span>
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<p class="p">Side conversations are spaces in a ticket where agents can have a separate conversation with a
specific group of people, or discuss a specific area of concern or course of action. Side conversations are stored separately from the main ticket thread and can include users who don't have account access. You can
use them to organize information about a ticket. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408844206746" target="_blank">About side conversations</a>.</p>
<p class="p">Admins can activate and deactivate side conversations. They're deactivated by default. Admins
can also configure how side conversations appear in the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408836526362" target="_blank">context panel</a>.</p>
<p class="p">Side conversations are only available in Zendesk Suite. They're not available in Support.</p>
<div class="p">Related articles:<ul class="ul">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408830838170" target="_blank">Side conversations resources</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">To activate and deactivate side conversations</strong></p>
<div class="p">
<ol class="ol" id="topic_d5y_k4y_fdb__ol_n2p_n4y_fdb">
<li class="li"><span class="ph">In <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4581766374554#topic_hfg_dyz_1hb" target="_blank">Admin Center</a>, click <img class="image" id="topic_d5y_k4y_fdb__d9e1224" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/ac_workspaces_icon.png">
<strong class="ph b">Workspaces</strong> in the sidebar, then select <strong class="ph b">Agent tools &gt; Side
conversations</strong>.</span></li>
<li class="li">Select <strong class="ph b">Turn on child tickets</strong>. This allows agents to create side conversation
child tickets and assign them to a specific agent or group. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408836521498" target="_blank">Using side conversation child tickets</a>.<p class="p">There are additional
settings you can turn on for child tickets. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8364222553498" target="_blank">Configuring side conversation child ticket settings</a>.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">Select <strong class="ph b">Turn on emails outside the main conversation</strong>. This allows agents to send
emails to people not currently participating in the main conversation, and see any replies
in the ticket.<div class="p">
<ul class="ul" id="topic_d5y_k4y_fdb__ul_p31_npf_rgc">
<li class="li">Select <strong class="ph b">Only show agent email addresses</strong> to restrict the list of suggested
email addresses to internal users.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p class="p">For information about using side conversations with email, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408844206746-Using-side-conversations-in-tickets-add-on-" target="_blank">Using side conversations in tickets</a>.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">Select <strong class="ph b">Turn on side conversations in Microsoft Teams</strong> to make side conversations
available from Microsoft Teams. <div class="p">
<ul class="ul" id="topic_d5y_k4y_fdb__ul_x3g_rpf_rgc">
<li class="li">If you have had difficulty connecting side conversations to your Microsoft Teams
account, select <strong class="ph b">Allow dynamic subdomain detection</strong>. This loosens some
requirements that allow Zendesk and Microsoft Teams to communicate smoothly, and can
impact the performance of your side conversations.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p class="p">To use side conversations with Microsoft Teams, you must also have the latest
version of <a class="xref" href="https://www.zendesk.com/marketplace/apps/support/767198/microsoft-teams-for-support/" target="_blank">Zendesk for Microsoft Teams</a> installed. See using
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5191537451290" target="_blank">Microsoft Teams in side conversations</a>.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">Select <strong class="ph b">Turn on side conversations in Slack</strong> to make side conversations available
from Slack.<p class="p">To use side conversations with Slack, you must also have the latest version
of the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408833756698" target="_blank">Slack for Zendesk Support</a>
app. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408844202778" target="_blank">Using Slack in side conversations</a>.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">Under <strong class="ph b">Context panel</strong>, select <strong class="ph b">Turn on the side conversations view</strong> if you
want the ticket's thread count to display in the context panel. When this option is turned
on, the number of side conversations displays even when you're not on the side
conversation panel in the Agent Workspace. <p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_d5y_k4y_fdb__image_mgy_kyx_22c" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/side_conv_cnxt_panel_count_setting.png" width="400"></p>
</li>
<li class="li">Under <strong class="ph b">Signatures</strong>, select <strong class="ph b">Use signatures in side conversations</strong> to
automatically add a signature to a side conversation. <div class="p">
<ul class="ul" id="topic_d5y_k4y_fdb__ul_m2v_tpf_rgc">
<li class="li">Select the <strong class="ph b">Signature type</strong> to add to side conversations. You can choose to
add either the commenting agent’s signature, or the brand signature.</li>
</ul>
</div>
</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Save</strong>.</li>
</ol>
</div>
<p class="p">When side conversations are activated, they're available for all agents to use. On Enterprise
plans, you can control access to side conversations by <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408882153882" target="_blank">creating a custom role</a>.</p>
<p class="p">It's recommended to set up trigger conditions for side conversations to fully integrate them
into your workflows and to keep agents on top of the activity within them. See the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408893545882" target="_blank">Ticket trigger conditions and actions reference</a>.</p>
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