Conversations & Threads
How one contact's channels and topics sit under a single inbox row
The inbox is organised around the person, not the channel. One contact is one row, however many channels they have written on and however many separate questions they have asked.
Inside that row are threads. A thread is one line of conversation - one channel, or one topic.
The Three Levels
| Level | What it is |
|---|---|
| Contact | The person. One row in People. |
| Conversation | The inbox row for that person. |
| Thread | One channel or one topic inside the conversation. Holds the messages. |
A customer who wrote on WhatsApp in March and on Instagram in June has one inbox row with two threads. If they merged with another contact, the threads of both come along - see merging contacts.
Switching Threads
When a conversation has more than one thread, a thread picker appears in the conversation header.
- Each thread is named by its channel when that is enough to tell them apart.
- When one person has several threads on the same channel, they are numbered oldest first - Thread 1, Thread 2, and so on.
- More reveals the rest when there are many.
The same numbering is used everywhere, so a system line that says "Thread 3" means the thread the picker calls that.
The All View
All merges every thread into one timeline, in time order.
It answers "what has this person ever said to us?" regardless of which channel carried it. Each message still shows which thread it came from.
Use All to get context, and a single thread to reply.
Replying
Because a conversation can span channels, replying means choosing where the reply goes. The composer shows Reply via and names the thread it will send on.
Check Reply via before you send in the All view. The merged timeline shows messages from every channel, so the last message you read is not necessarily on the thread your reply will go out on.
Channel messaging windows still apply per thread. If a thread is outside its window - WhatsApp's 24 hours, for instance - that thread only accepts an approved template, and you can switch to a thread that is open instead. See channel constraints for the per-channel rules.
Unread Elsewhere
While you are in one thread, Wexio tells you when there is unread activity on the others - "N unread on other threads". The conversation's own unread count is the total across all of them.
Filtering Threads
In a conversation with many threads, filter the list:
| Filter | Shows |
|---|---|
| All | Every thread. |
| Unresolved | Threads that are still open. |
| Awaiting reply | Threads where the customer is waiting on you. |
Awaiting reply is the one to work from when you are catching up - it is the subset where the ball is in your court.
Multiple Topics on One Channel
A single channel can carry several threads at once. On the website widget a visitor can start a new question while earlier ones are still open, and each becomes its own thread with its own status and assignment.
That is why threads are numbered: two threads can share a channel and still be separate conversations about separate things.
Assignment and Status
Status and assignment live on the thread, not on the conversation. Two threads of the same contact can be assigned to different operators and be in different states.
The conversation row rolls this up: when every open thread has the same operator, the row shows that operator; when they diverge, it shows that more than one person is involved.
Assigning every thread of a conversation at once is possible - useful when one person should own everything from a customer.
Blocking
Blocking works at two levels:
| Level | Effect |
|---|---|
| Contact | The person is blocked everywhere - every thread, every channel. |
| Thread | Only that thread is blocked. |
The conversation row marks both cases, and distinguishes "this person is blocked" from "one of their threads is blocked".
Blocked takes priority over closed. A blocked thread stays blocked whatever its status says.
Related
- Chat - working inside a thread
- Merging contacts - why one row can hold many identities
- Collections - organising the inbox
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