Announcing the ability to pause messaging inactivity reminders

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<td style="height: 22px; width: 33.3333%;"><strong>Announced on</strong></td>
<td><strong>Rollout starts</strong></td>
<td style="height: 22px; width: 33.3333%;"><strong>Rollout ends</strong></td>
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<td style="height: 22px; width: 33.3333%;">August 26, 2026</td>
<td>August 11, 2026</td>
<td style="height: 22px; width: 33.3333%;">August 11, 2026</td>
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</table></figure><p><span style="color: #2f3941;">We are excited to announce a new capability that allows agents to <strong>exclude specific tickets from the auto-capacity release timer and messaging inactivity reminders</strong>. By using the new <strong>Pause messaging reminders</strong> standard ticket field, teams gain greater control over complex messaging conversations.</span></p><p>This article includes the following sections:</p><ul>
<li data-list-item-id="e166c8b24f8287ec65ee332afac435962"><a href="#h_01K39FKN2ZKQS92V5424YQV505">What is changing?</a></li>
<li data-list-item-id="e85831f6c47a3d95470186430706074a4"><a href="#h_01K3A7DY1MGYWC5Z9FE5WEZMD9">Why is Zendesk making this change?</a></li>
<li data-list-item-id="e7a57cba012384f414d50fa64c2b65ad4"><a href="#h_01K3A7FEPQBH8P3JPGKNBZRT8C">What do I need to do?</a></li>
<li data-list-item-id="eee4fc919015818da61f13265e9613437"><a href="#h_01M12KM6VSR00H6EZD6S8115RA">Additional notes</a></li>
</ul><h2 id="h_01K39FKN2ZKQS92V5424YQV505">What is changing?</h2><p><span style="color: #2f3941;">We have introduced a standard <strong>Ticket Platform Field (TPF)</strong> titled <strong>Pause messaging reminders</strong>. This field empowers agents to manually pause automated workflows for individual messaging tickets.</span></p><p><span style="color: #2f3941;">When an agent checks this box and saves the ticket:</span></p><ul>
<li class="wysiwyg-list-color" style="--wysiwyg-list-marker-color: #2f3941;" data-list-item-id="ee928dd678a9ad3401e0fbe8303db5e77"><span style="color: #2f3941;">The <strong>auto-capacity release timer</strong> stops.</span></li>
<li class="wysiwyg-list-color" style="--wysiwyg-list-marker-color: #2f3941;" data-list-item-id="ef9104aa6954ac709b1fdbabf237ac259"><span style="color: #2f3941;">The <strong>messaging inactivity reminder flow</strong> is suppressed, meaning no reminder messages are sent to the end user.</span></li>
<li class="wysiwyg-list-color" style="--wysiwyg-list-marker-color: #2f3941;" data-list-item-id="ebf5f65fce47a440291c28c96177ec382"><span style="color: #2f3941;">The <strong>ticket status</strong> will not be updated by the inactivity step.</span></li>
<li class="wysiwyg-list-color" style="--wysiwyg-list-marker-color: #2f3941;" data-list-item-id="ef97bf2c36c7c03c6045cfc43e29b945f"><span style="color: #2f3941;">The conversation remains active, and <strong>agent capacity</strong> is not released.</span></li>
</ul><p><span style="color: #2f3941;">This ensures that agents can continue working on complex investigations without the system automatically closing the conversation or sending premature "keep-alive" messages to the customer.</span></p><h2 id="h_01K3A7DY1MGYWC5Z9FE5WEZMD9">Why is Zendesk making this change?</h2><p><span style="color: #2f3941;">This update provides the flexibility required for modern, nuanced support workflows. Key benefits include:</span></p><ul>
<li class="wysiwyg-list-color" style="--wysiwyg-list-marker-color: #2f3941;" data-list-item-id="e71972fa3a74f90c2952361b3689674b2"><span style="color: #2f3941;"><strong>Reduced Noise:</strong> Eliminates unnecessary automated reminders, improving the end-user experience.</span></li>
<li class="wysiwyg-list-color" style="--wysiwyg-list-marker-color: #2f3941;" data-list-item-id="e0d6fc290470ec3f2ad52d01b5b76902e"><span style="color: #2f3941;"><strong>Accurate Workloads:</strong> Prevents capacity from being released on tickets that still require active investigation.</span></li>
<li class="wysiwyg-list-color" style="--wysiwyg-list-marker-color: #2f3941;" data-list-item-id="e81a8000d13485fac3c6680c474705524"><span style="color: #2f3941;"><strong>Customer Satisfaction:</strong> Allows agents to handle complex cases with more control and thoughtful follow-up.</span></li>
</ul><h2 id="h_01K3A7FEPQBH8P3JPGKNBZRT8C">What do I need to do?</h2><p><span style="color: #2f3941;">To allow agents to use the <strong>Pause messaging reminders</strong> field in the Agent Workspace, administrators must:</span></p><ol>
<li data-list-item-id="ec3d1c407fa18ed4f16edf3173829f60d">
<a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/7043034053658-Automatically-releasing-agent-capacity-for-inactive-messaging-conversations#topic_mfm_prq_1bc"><span class="wysiwyg-underline">Turn on the Auto-capacity release timer</span></a><span style="color: #2f3941;">.</span>
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<li data-list-item-id="ebca2129afb197c40dde3986ea15f89c3">
<a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5494868102426-Editing-ticket-forms#topic_h4l_mkp_knb"><span class="wysiwyg-underline">Add the </span><strong><span class="wysiwyg-underline">Pause messaging reminders</span></strong><span class="wysiwyg-underline"> field to relevant ticket forms</span></a><span style="color: #2f3941;">.</span>
</li>
</ol><p><span style="color: #2f3941;">Then, agents can exclude tickets from receiving inactivity reminders by selecting <strong>Pause messaging reminders</strong> in the applied ticket form. They can resume sending reminders by deselecting this field. See </span><a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/7043034053658" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="color: #2f3941;">Automatically releasing agent capacity for inactive messaging conversations</span></a><span style="color: #2f3941;">.</span></p><p>If you have feedback or questions related to this announcement, visit our <a href="https://community.zendesk.com/ideas" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span class="wysiwyg-underline">community forum</span></a> where we collect and manage customer product feedback. For general assistance with your Zendesk products, contact <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408843597850"><span class="wysiwyg-underline">Zendesk Customer Support</span></a>.</p><h2 id="h_01M12KM6VSR00H6EZD6S8115RA">Additional notes</h2><ul>
<li class="wysiwyg-list-color" style="--wysiwyg-list-marker-color: #2f3941;" data-list-item-id="ec14b82cc1d238c14c6e0da57c5f28151"><span style="color: #2f3941;"><strong>Automation Support:</strong> The Pause messaging reminders ticket field is fully compatible with <strong>triggers</strong> and <strong>macros</strong>, allowing for automated exclusion based on specific ticket criteria.</span></li>
<li data-list-item-id="ef7ec7941d2bc46874b89257c746dc2f7">
<span style="color: #2f3941;"><strong>Visibility Logic:</strong> If the global <strong>Auto-capacity release</strong> setting is disabled, the ticket field will be hidden from the Admin Center, Agent Workspace, and all automation configurations.</span><br> </li>
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