Seeing live agent status and activities with Explore

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<p id="docs-hc-snippet" style="display: none;">Using live dashboards in Explore, you can see which agents are online and which open tickets, conversations or chats, and calls they’re assigned to. This real-time capacity reporting helps supervisors balance availability and workloads across teams, as well as monitor individual agent performance, all from a central dashboard.</p>
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<div class="p">
<div class="note important">
<span class="importanttitle">Important:</span> On January 25, 2027, prebuilt live dashboards, live data
components, and the ability to create live dashboards will be removed from Explore.
All live monitoring use cases will be available in <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/9757124462234" target="_blank">real-time monitoring</a>, offering the same features as
legacy live reporting, improved reliability, and additional capabilities.</div>
</div>
<p class="p">Using live dashboards in Explore, you can see which agents are online and which open
tickets, conversations or chats, and calls they’re assigned to. This real-time capacity
reporting helps supervisors balance availability and workloads across teams, as well as
monitor individual agent performance, all from a central dashboard.</p>
<p class="p">The instructions in this article work for the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408843771546" target="_blank">prebuilt live dashboard</a> as well as any live dashboards built
in the beta dashboard builder that have <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408826499482" target="_blank">reports with drill in enabled</a>.</p>
<div class="p">
<div class="note tip">
<span class="tiptitle">Tip:</span> Zendesk now offers <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/9757124462234" target="_blank">real-time monitoring</a>, which enhances your reporting by
focusing on use cases, offering immediate decision-making insights, and tracking
trends for up to seven days.</div>
</div>
<p class="p">This article includes the following topics:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_vsq_lgc_psb__ul_icp_bhc_psb">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_rsp_zhc_psb">Viewing agent status and workload</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_ckg_x3c_psb">Seeing which open work items are assigned to an agent</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_lxc_xpr_31c">Changing agent status</a></li>
</ul>
<p class="p">Related articles:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_vsq_lgc_psb__ul_df2_wq4_jzb">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6358278450202" target="_blank">Seeing live agent status with Explore: Use
cases</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408843771546" target="_blank">Overview of the Explore live
dashboard</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_rsp_zhc_psb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">Viewing agent status and workload</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">You can drill into a live dashboard to see which statuses agents are in and what
their workloads are across channels.</p>
<p class="p">If you’ve <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5866925319962" target="_blank">turned on omnichannel routing</a>, you can
also see which <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4410525357594" target="_blank">custom statuses</a> agents are in and what their <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4776409839770" target="_blank">workload capacity</a> is across channels.</p>
<div class="p">
<div class="note important" id="topic_rsp_zhc_psb__note_zpw_msx_wwb">
<span class="importanttitle">Important:</span> If you don't use omnichannel routing,
get the most value out of this information by reminding your agents to sign in
and out of Zendesk to accurately represent their shifts. This is particularly
important for the Support channel, where only two default agent states are
reported (Online and Offline). If agents don’t sign out, Explore will show them
as always online.</div>
</div>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">To view agent status and workload</strong></p>
<ol class="ol" id="topic_rsp_zhc_psb__ol_r4b_djc_psb">
<li class="li">In Explore, click the <strong class="ph b">Dashboard</strong> icon (<img class="image" id="topic_rsp_zhc_psb__image_s4b_djc_psb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/Explore_dashboard_icon.png">).</li>
<li class="li">Open a live dashboard.</li>
<li class="li">(Optional) Filter the dashboard based on the specific groups or brands you want
to see. You can choose up to five attribute values per filter.</li>
<li class="li">Click any agent status metric and select <strong class="ph b">Drill in</strong>. Agent status metrics
include <strong class="ph b">Agents online</strong>, <strong class="ph b">Agents offline</strong>, <strong class="ph b">Agents away</strong>,
<strong class="ph b">Agents invisible</strong>, and <strong class="ph b">Agents transfer only</strong>, as well as custom
statuses created as part of omnichannel routing. <p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_rsp_zhc_psb__image_yrm_2jc_psb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/explore_live_metric_agents_online_drill_in.png" width="400"></p>
<div class="p">
<div class="note note" id="topic_rsp_zhc_psb__note_ebz_zpd_xsb">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> If you drill into a live agent status metric
with more than 100 agents, you won't see the list of agents in that
status. Use dashboard filters to lower the number of agents that a live
metric reflects. When you do, you'll be able to see the list of agents
when you drill into the metric.</div>
</div>
The <strong class="ph b">Agent workload vs. capacity</strong> window opens, showing a list of
agents and the following columns:<div class="p">
<ul class="ul">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Status</strong>: Which default or custom status each agent is
currently in. If you use omnichannel routing, this column is called
<strong class="ph b">Unified status</strong>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Time in status</strong>: How long each agent has been in their current
status</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Emails</strong>: How many tickets each agent is assigned to</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Messages</strong>: How many active messaging conversations each agent
has</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Chats</strong>: How many chats each agent is currently handling</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Calls</strong>: How many calls each agent is currently
handling<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_rsp_zhc_psb__image_srb_t15_zyb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/explore_live_dashboard_workload_capacity_nov17.png" width="600"></p>
<p class="p">If you use
omnichannel routing, hover over the <strong class="ph b">Emails</strong>,
<strong class="ph b">Messages</strong>, <strong class="ph b">Chats</strong>, or <strong class="ph b">Calls</strong> column to see
the number of work items assigned to an agent compared to their
set capacity. A dash (-) in the <strong class="ph b">Emails</strong>, <strong class="ph b">Messages</strong>,
<strong class="ph b">Chats</strong>, or <strong class="ph b">Calls</strong> column means the agent does
not have access to that channel (if you're filtering by unified
status), or the agent is not in the status for that channel (if
you're filtering by a channel-specific status).</p>
<p class="p">If you
don't use omnichannel routing, a dash always appears in these
columns because capacity information is not available without
omnichannel routing.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</li>
<li class="li">(Optional) Click <strong class="ph b">Filter</strong> to filter the list by the following options: <ul class="ul" id="topic_rsp_zhc_psb__ol_gd1_gyx_fzb">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Channel</strong>: Includes <strong class="ph b">Email</strong>, <strong class="ph b">Messaging</strong> or <strong class="ph b">Chat</strong>,
and <strong class="ph b">Talk</strong>. </li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Status by channel</strong>: Includes the agent statuses that apply to
individual channels.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Group</strong>: (Appears only if you filtered the dashboard by group in
step 3 above) Includes the groups in your account.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Unified status</strong>: (Appears only if you use omnichannel routing)
Includes the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4410525357594" target="_blank">default unified agent statuses and
any custom statuses</a> you've created. <p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_rsp_zhc_psb__image_bzp_wf3_hzb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/explore_live_dashboard_uas_filters_nov17.png" width="600"></p>
<p class="p">You can filter by
multiple channels and statuses at the same time. When filtering,
note that some channel-specific statuses (like Invisible for Chat)
are not reflected by the default unified statuses. Additionally,
custom statuses can be mapped to different statuses for each
channel. If you don't see the results you expect, check the filters
to make sure you're not unintentionally excluding agents based on
channel or custom status.</p>
<p class="p">Depending on which live agent status
metric you drilled into in step 4, filters might already be applied
to the list. For example, if you drilled into the <strong class="ph b">Support -
Agents online</strong> metric, the results are pre-filtered by the
<strong class="ph b">Email</strong> channel and the <strong class="ph b">Online</strong> status.</p>
<div class="p">
<div class="note tip" id="topic_rsp_zhc_psb__note_d5l_wj1_jzb">
<span class="tiptitle">Tip:</span> If you’ve <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5866925319962" target="_blank">turned on omnichannel
routing</a>, you have access to unfiltered <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408843357210#topic_cg5_4x5_zyb" target="_blank">unified agent status live
metrics</a>.</div>
</div>
<p class="p">When you filter by channel, the list shows only the workload
columns that apply to the selected channels. For example, if you
filter by <strong class="ph b">Talk</strong>, you'll see the <strong class="ph b">Calls</strong> column, but not
the <strong class="ph b">Emails</strong>, <strong class="ph b">Messages</strong>, or <strong class="ph b">Chats</strong>
columns.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ol>
<p class="p">Note that the <strong class="ph b">Agent workload vs. capacity</strong> window doesn't update in real time
when it's open and no actions are being performed. When you take an action (such as
updating an agent status or changing your filters) or close and reopen the window,
the data is refreshed.</p>
<div class="p">
<div class="note tip" id="topic_rsp_zhc_psb__note_jdv_br4_jzb">
<span class="tiptitle">Tip:</span> For more about effectively monitoring agent
status with an Explore live dashboard, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6358278450202" target="_blank">Seeing live agent status with Explore: Use
cases</a>.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested1" id="topic_ckg_x3c_psb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title3">Seeing which open work items are assigned to an agent</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">After opening the list of agents, you can select a specific agent to see which open
work items are assigned to them.</p>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">To see which open work items are assigned to an agent</strong></p>
<ol class="ol" id="topic_ckg_x3c_psb__ol_ibn_qjc_psb">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_rsp_zhc_psb">Open the Agent workload vs.
capacity window.</a></li>
<li class="li">Search for a specific agent in the search bar at the top. Search results are
limited to 50 results. Make sure your search is as specific as possible so you
can find the agent you want.<p class="p">Use a caret (^) to specify that the agent's name
must start with your exact search term. (For example, ^Alex will return
"Alex Jensen," but not "Maria Alexander.")</p>
<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_ckg_x3c_psb__image_mzs_trr_31c" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/docs/en/explore_workload_vs_capacity_searching_agent.png" width="600"></p>
</li>
<li class="li">Select the agent you want to see work items for.<p class="p">The <strong class="ph b">Agent work items</strong>
window appears and shows the agent's overall status and status for each
channel, along with details about the tickets, messaging conversations or
chats, and calls the agent is working on.</p>
<p class="p">The <strong class="ph b">Time in status</strong>
shown is the time for the channel you selected when you first drilled in.
For example, if you drilled into this screen from a Support metric, the time
in status shown is the time active for the Support channel.</p>
<p class="p">If you use
omnichannel routing, this window also shows the agent’s capacity underneath
their status for each channel. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4776409839770" target="_blank">Creating capacity rules to balance agent
workload</a> for more information on setting agent
capacity.</p>
<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_ckg_x3c_psb__image_gzm_5dk_rwb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/explore_live_metric_work_item_drill_in_nov17.png" width="600"></p>
</li>
<li class="li">(Optional) Use the <strong class="ph b">Filter</strong> drop-down to select a channel and see only work
items for that channel.</li>
<li class="li">Select a work item to see more details.<p class="p">For each ticket, the window shows the
following details:</p>
<div class="p">
<ul class="ul" id="topic_ckg_x3c_psb__ul_igc_mgk_rwb">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Requester</strong>: The user who is asking for support through a
ticket</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Ticket ID</strong>: The unique ID number of the ticket</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Status</strong>: What status the ticket is currently in (New, Open,
Pending, On-hold, Closed)</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Account name</strong>: The Zendesk account name (described in <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408842817434#topic_j34_xj2_4nb" target="_blank">Branding the Support
interface</a>)</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Date requested</strong>: The date the ticket was submitted</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Priority</strong>: How urgent the ticket is</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Group</strong>: What group the ticket is currently assigned to</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Last updated</strong>: The date the ticket was last updated</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p class="p">For each messaging conversation, the window shows the following
details:</p>
<div class="p">
<ul class="ul" id="topic_ckg_x3c_psb__ul_jgc_mgk_rwb">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Requester</strong>: The name of the user the agent is messaging
with</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Ticket ID</strong>: The unique ID number of the ticket</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Originating channel</strong>: The channel that the conversation
started on. Possible values include Email and Messaging.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Duration</strong>: How long the agent has been working on the ongoing
conversation</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p class="p">For each chat, the window shows the following details:</p>
<div class="p">
<ul class="ul" id="topic_ckg_x3c_psb__ul_kgc_mgk_rwb">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Requester</strong>: The name of the user the agent is chatting
with</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Chat ID</strong>: The unique ID number of the chat</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Originating channel</strong>: The channel that the message came from.
Possible values include Facebook Messenger and Chat.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Duration</strong>: How long the chat has been active</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p class="p">For each call, the window shows the following details:</p>
<div class="p">
<ul class="ul" id="topic_ckg_x3c_psb__ul_lgc_mgk_rwb">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Caller</strong>: The phone number of the caller </li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Call ID</strong>: The unique ID number of the ticket associated with
the call </li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Call type</strong>: The type of call (described in <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409156145434#topic_w5f_xdh_5bb" target="_blank">Metrics and attributes for
Zendesk Talk</a>) </li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Duration</strong>: How long the call has been going on</li>
</ul>
</div>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title4" class="topic nested1" id="topic_lxc_xpr_31c">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title4">Changing agent status</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">From the list of agents, users with permission can change the status of a single
agent or multiple agents. To change agent status, you must be a Support admin (all
plans) or have a custom role with the Change agent status setting (Enterprise plans
only). See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408836002970" target="_blank">Giving users access to Explore</a>. </p>
<p class="p">For example, you might change an agent's status if they completed their shift but
forgot to sign out to mark themselves unavailable. </p>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">To change agent status</strong></p>
<ol class="ol" id="topic_lxc_xpr_31c__ol_ct1_dqr_31c">
<li class="li">
<a class="xref" href="#topic_rsp_zhc_psb">Open the Agent workload vs.
capacity window</a>. </li>
<li class="li">Select the check box to the left of each agent you want to change the status of.
You may select up to 500 agents at a time. <p class="p">If you search for an agent, search
results are limited to 50 results. Make sure your search is as specific as
possible so you can find the agent you want.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">In the bottom bar, click <strong class="ph b">Change status</strong> and select the status you want to
set for the agent. <p class="p">To select a custom status, click <strong class="ph b">Other statuses</strong> and
then select the appropriate custom status.</p>
<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_lxc_xpr_31c__image_kvm_jqr_31c" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/explore_workload_vs_capacity_change_status.png" width="600"></p>
When you select a status, the
agent’s status is immediately updated. You don’t need to save or confirm. </li>
</ol>
<div class="p">
<div class="note note" id="topic_lxc_xpr_31c__note_twv_ypr_31c">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> Currently, when a manager or supervisor changes an
agent’s status for them, that change isn’t reflected in the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408842880282-Zendesk-Chat-triggers-conditions-and-actions-reference#:~:text=Online%20statuses-,Account%20status,-Status%20of%20your" target="_blank">Account status</a> or <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408842880282-Zendesk-Chat-triggers-conditions-and-actions-reference#:~:text=trigger%20will%20fire.-,Department%20status,-Status%20of%20the" target="_blank">Department status</a> condition in Chat
triggers for the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408822204698-About-messaging-triggers-in-the-Chat-dashboard#:~:text=Updated%20action%20options-,The%20Channel%20menu,-The%20new%20Channel" target="_blank">“Messaging” and “Chat and messaging”
channels</a>. However, these conditions work correctly when the agent
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4410545721114" target="_blank">updates their own status</a>.</div>
</div>
</div>
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