Understanding simplified email threading

Note: If your account was created before June 15, 2022, you have the original
email threading experience. To switch to the simplified threading experience, see Implementing simplified email threading for email
applications.

Because email is an important channel for tickets, the user experience in email
applications such as Gmail matters for both end users and agents. End users can carry out
entire ticket conversations using their email application; agents routinely get ticket
notifications in their email application—for example, when a ticket has been assigned to
them.
Simplified email threading improves the way that email messages appear to your end
users and agents in modern email applications such as Gmail. It removes redundant messages to
make conversations easier to follow and more productive for both end users and agents.
This article covers the following topics:


Understanding the end user experience
Understanding the agent experience




Understanding the end user experience

This section shows an example of how a ticket email thread may appear to your end users
after you implement simplified email threading.
Suppose an end user submits a support request using Gmail and the agent replies by adding a
comment to the ticket in Zendesk. In the original experience, the end user receives an email
notifying them that their support request has been updated. The message not only shows the
agent's reply, but it also repeats the user's original message as a threaded comment with
the agent's reply.

The simplified email threading experience is more conversational. The same interaction
looks as follows in the end user's email application:

The difference is more noticeable when the end user adds a second comment and the agent
replies to it. In the simplified email threading experience, the interaction looks like a
normal conversation in the end user's email application:

The same interaction looks as follows with the original email threading experience:

In the original email threading experience, each subsequent message in the conversation
repeats the full thread of the conversation to that point.
Including only the comment in each message allows the end user to better use the native
threading capabilities of their email application. In long email threads in Gmail for
example, only the first message and the last two messages are shown with an option to expand
the thread. Example:

In some scenarios, the message shows the comment and the three most recent public comments
to give the user context for the conversation. This occurs when an agent adds a user as a CC
in a long conversation or if the previous comment was redacted or is older than 30 days.

Zendesk also sends the message history as a quoted reply with each message. The quoted
reply is usually collapsed in the user's email application, but the user can expand it. In
Gmail, for example, the user clicks the ellipsis (…). In the unlikely event that Zendesk
can't pull the entire message history to populate the quoted reply, a snapshot of the last
three messages in the ticket is sent to provide context on the thread history.

Note: If your triggers use dynamic content with placeholders, simplified
email threads will display differently. Outgoing email notifications generated by those
triggers will only show the latest comment instead of all comments in the ticket
thread.
With simplified email threading, outbound emails from Zendesk Support don't include inline
image attachments from previous user emails.



Understanding the agent experience

Although agents work mostly in the Zendesk agent interface, agents routinely get
ticket notifications in their email applications—for example, when a ticket has been
assigned to them. In the simplified threading experience, email notifications sent to an
agent include more information about the ticket, including metadata the end user does not
have access to.
As in the end-user experience, each message sent to an agent only includes the
comment made by a user or agent, not the complete email thread to that point. However, in
the agent's case, the message also includes a ticket info card with key information about
the ticket as well as a button the agent can click to view the ticket in Support:

Internal notes and warnings can also appear. In the screenshot below, agent Jenny Kim
hasn’t been included in the ticket, but has permission to view it and leave comments. She
left an internal note for her fellow agents, which is indicated above her comment. Because
she had not been added to the ticket before commenting, a warning appears at the top of the
comment letting agents know her status.


For comparison, here's a similar message in the original email experience:



{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "TechArticle",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4565992897562",
"url": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4565992897562-Understanding-simplified-email-threading",
"headline": "Understanding simplified email threading",
"description": "You can implement simplified email threading to improve how email messages appear in modern email applications by removing redundant messages and enhancing conversation clarity for both end users and agents.",
"articleSection": "Formatting and customizing your email",
"datePublished": "2022-04-28T22:39:37+00:00",
"dateModified": "2025-09-05T23:28:19+00:00",
"inLanguage": "en-US",
"mainEntityOfPage": {
"@type": "WebPage",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4565992897562"
},
"author": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Zendesk",
"@id": "https://www.zendesk.com"
},
"publisher": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Zendesk",
"@id": "https://www.zendesk.com"
},
"isPartOf": {
"@type": "WebSite",
"name": "Zendesk Help",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/"
},
"about": {
"@type": "SoftwareApplication",
"name": "Zendesk",
"@id": "https://www.zendesk.com",
"softwareAddOn": {
"@type": "SoftwareApplication",
"name": "Email",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/sections/5497839292186"
}
}
}