Announcing enhancements to the agent status picker in the Agent Workspace

Announced on | Rollout on
August 18, 2026 | August 18, 2026

Zendesk is pleased to introduce new customization options for the unified agent status picker. Admins can now hide statuses agents don't need and reorder statuses to align with agent workflows.

This announcement includes the following topics:

What is changing?

Why is Zendesk making this change?

What do I need to do?

What is changing?

Admins can now customize which unified agent statuses are available in the status picker for agents to select as well as the order in which statuses appear.

Hiding unified agent statuses

It is now possible for admins to hide any custom unified agent statuses and the standard Away and Transfer only statuses. Hiding a status removes it from the status picker in Agent Workspace, but doesn't delete the status or change its routing configuration.

Hiding statuses can also help admins prepare custom statuses in advance and keep them hidden until they're ready to be used.

Note that the standard statuses of Online and Offline can't be hidden and are always visible in the status picker.

Reordering unified agent statuses

On the Agent statuses page in Admin Center, admins can now drag and drop statuses into the order in which they will be displayed in the status picker. After the changes are saved, the updated order is reflected in the Agent Workspace.

Custom statuses can be restricted to specific groups, but their position in the status picker follows the global order on the Agent Statuses page.

Why is Zendesk making this change?

Businesses with complex workflows often create multiple custom statuses to help agents manage their availability, time, and workload. As the number of statuses grows, agents may need to scroll through a long list to find the correct option. These changes make the status picker easier and more efficient for agents to use because it ensures the status picker reflects options relevant to current business workflows, removes unnecessary choices without deleting their configuration, and allows admins to place the most frequently used statuses at the top of the list.

What do I need to do?

No action is required. Existing statuses will remain visible and keep their current order unless an admin chooses to hide or reorder them. To take advantage of these new features, see Managing the unified agent statuses available to your agents.

If you have feedback or questions related to this announcement, visit our community forum where we collect and manage customer product feedback. For general assistance with your Zendesk products, contact Zendesk Customer Support.