# The conversations inbox

> This is where you read all your chat agent's conversations, from every channel: find them with filters and search, keep them in order with folders and labels, and spot new ones right away.

Page: https://supportfast.ai/en/guide/conversations/inbox/ · Section: Conversations · Updated on 30 October 2026

Each chat agent has its own inbox. Open it from the sidebar, Chat agent › Conversations. Don't confuse it with the Conversations tab of the agent's settings, Chat agent › Agent profile › Conversations, where you set up quick replies, folders and labels. To switch to another agent, press `Ctrl` + `K` (`⌘` + `K` on a Mac), or Search or jump to... at the top, and type its name. Inside you find the chats that came from your website, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger. The voice agent's phone calls are in Voice agent › Calls instead, a page built the same way: we describe it in [Calls: list and details](https://supportfast.ai/en/guide/voice-agent/calls.md).

> **Note**
>
> **Who sees the inbox.** You need the “Conversations (Agents)” permission, and you only see the agents assigned to you in Account › Team. Without the permission, the Conversations item doesn't appear in the menu. Permissions are explained in [Team, roles and permissions](https://supportfast.ai/en/guide/account/team.md#the-14-permissions), where they appear without the part in brackets: “Conversations” in the Agents group.

![The conversations inbox of the Officina Rossi Assistant agent: filters with counts on the left, conversations from the website, WhatsApp and Instagram in the middle and, on the right, a chat handled by the AI Agent.](https://supportfast.ai/_astro/04-conversazioni-casella.Di7D92em.webp)

_Filters on the left, the list in the middle and the open conversation on the right._

## How the page is laid out

The page fills the whole window and is split into three columns.

- **On the left**, the navigation: channels, chat status, folders, labels and campaigns. Next to each item, a number tells you how many conversations you'll find when you click it.
- **In the middle**, the Chat list: the conversations, with search and filters.
- **On the right**, the open conversation.

Next to the title, the Refresh button reloads the list. On agents connected to WhatsApp with at least one approved template, New conversation also appears, so you can message a customer first: we explain it in [Writing, attachments and tools](https://supportfast.ai/en/guide/conversations/tools.md). If the agent hasn't had any conversations yet, you see the notice “No conversations yet” instead of the list.

## Channels

| Item | What it shows |
| --- | --- |
| All channels | All conversations with customers, with no channel filter. |
| Web | The widget on your website and the full-page chat, the one you share with a link or embed in one of your pages. |
| WhatsApp | The WhatsApp number connected to the workspace. |
| Instagram | Direct messages of the connected Instagram account. |
| Facebook | Messenger messages of the connected Facebook page. |
| Internal | The tests you run with Test Chat in the agent's [Playground](https://supportfast.ai/en/guide/chat-agent/playground.md). They don't appear in the other views, not even in All channels. They have nothing to do with “Internal notes”, which are the team's notes. |

How tests behave is explained in [Testing and publishing](https://supportfast.ai/en/guide/chat-agent/test-and-publish.md).

Channels can be combined: click WhatsApp and then Instagram to see them together. A second click on an active channel turns it off. All conversations, at the top of the column, clears channel, status, folder, label and campaign all at once.

## Chat status: who is handling the conversation

| Status | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| Handled by AI | The agent answers. No person has stepped in and nobody has asked for an operator. |
| Waiting for operator | The customer, or the agent itself, asked for a person, and nobody on the team has taken the chat yet. |
| Handled by operator | A person has the chat: a teammate who took it from the console, or someone who replied from the WhatsApp Business app. |

You can choose one status at a time; a second click turns it off. How to take a conversation and hand it back is explained in [Stepping in as an operator](https://supportfast.ai/en/guide/conversations/take-over.md).

## The list and a conversation row

Above the list you find the Search chats... field, the All filters menu, the Multi-select button and the Filter by date calendar. The sort menu chooses between Newest first and Oldest first, based on the last message.

Each row shows:

- the **channel icon**; a green dot means the website visitor is online at that moment;
- the title “Conversation #N”;
- below it, the contact's email or, if it's missing, their name. With no contact you see “Unknown”;
- the **preview**: the customer's last message, not the agent's last reply. If the message isn't text, you see a single word, for example “Image”, “Voice message”, “Attachment” or “Template”;
- on the right, the date and time of the last message (for example “Aug 24 - 04:46 PM”) and the signals below.

| Signal | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| Orange clock | The customer is waiting for an operator. |
| Operator icon, purple | The chat is handled by a person. |
| Contact icon, yellow | The conversation is linked to a contact in the contact book. |
| Red no-entry sign | The contact is blocked. |
| Blue dot with a number | Unread messages (“9+” above nine). |

## Filtering

The All filters menu narrows the list to one filter at a time: Open, Closed, Contact (linked to a contact) or Unread. “Closed” conversations are those closed with Close chat: in the contact card's activity, the same conversation shows as “Completed”. In the same menu you also find the chat statuses seen above: Handled by AI, Operator requested (the same as Waiting for operator) and Handled by operator. The chosen filter appears above the list: the X Remove the filter turns it off.

With Filter by date you pick a period with the From and To calendars. The conversations active on those days remain. Today fills in any missing date with today's date; Clear dates removes the period.

In the left column, under Filters, you find three more menus:

- All folders and All labels, to see only one folder or one label;
- All campaigns, to see the conversations started by a WhatsApp campaign. Only people with the “Campaigns (Workspace)” permission see it.

## Searching

Type in the Search chats... field. The search finds the conversations that have:

- a message from the customer, the agent or an operator that contains the text (upper and lower case don't matter);
- that number, if you type only a number: “128” finds “Conversation #128”;
- a contact that matches the text: first name, last name, company, email, phone, social account or contact note.

The text found is highlighted in yellow. Conversation notes aren't searched. If you see “Partial result: refine your search to see everything.”, add a word or narrow the period.

To search inside an open conversation, use Chat options › Search (the three-dot menu). The header turns into the Search in this conversation field, with a counter (for example “2/7”) and arrows to move from one result to the next.

## Folders and labels

They help you keep the inbox in order: for example, a “Quotes” folder and an “Urgent” label. A conversation sits in one folder only, but it can have several labels. Create them in Chat agent › Agent profile › Conversations or from the inbox, with Add folder and Add label in the filter menus. To create, edit or delete them you need the “Settings (Agents)” permission: people with only “Conversations (Agents)” can assign them. The rules are in [Agent profile: Conversations](https://supportfast.ai/en/guide/chat-agent/conversations.md).

To assign them, open the conversation and use the icons at the top right:

- Folder: choose the folder, or No folder to remove it;
- Labels: each click adds or removes a label; a check mark shows the assigned ones.

Changes apply immediately, without saving.

## Multi-select

1. **Turn on selection**
   Press Multi-select above the list. A checkbox appears in front of each row, and clicking a row selects it instead of opening it.

2. **Choose the conversations**
   Tick the rows one by one, or press Select all. This takes all the conversations that match the active filters.

3. **Choose the action**
   Mark as read, Close chats, Add label, Move to folder or Delete. Deleting asks for confirmation and can't be undone.

When it's done, you see “Conversations updated” or “Conversations deleted”. Cancel leaves selection mode; changing a filter also clears the selection.

## Read and unread

The blue dot counts the messages that nobody on the team has seen yet.

- A conversation becomes read when you open it and scroll to the bottom. If a teammate reads it, it's read for the whole team.
- To put it back among the unread ones, use Chat options › Mark unread: the conversation panel closes and you see “Conversation marked as unread”.

## Real-time updates

You don't need to reload the page. New messages appear in the open conversation, the row moves to the top of the list and new conversations show up on their own. The numbers in the left column also update on their own.

While the page is open, the console plays a **sound**:

- when a conversation becomes unread, that is, at the customer's first new message;
- always, when a customer asks for an operator, even if that very conversation is open in front of you.

The sound only works for the agent of the open page: if you follow several agents, open their inboxes in separate browser tabs. To be notified even when the page is closed, use the notification emails, explained in [Agent profile: General](https://supportfast.ai/en/guide/chat-agent/general.md#email-notifications).

## Opening a conversation

Click a row. At the top you find the header:

- “Conversation #N”, with the contact's name and email (or phone);
- the Labels, Folder and Contact card icons;
- the Chat options menu, with Summarise, Search, Mark unread, Send template (WhatsApp only) and Delete chat;
- the Close chat or Reopen chat button;
- a banner that says who is handling the conversation, for example “The AI Agent is handling this conversation” or “The customer asked for an operator”.

Among the messages, [conversation notes](https://supportfast.ai/en/guide/conversations/tools.md#conversation-notes) are yellow. Events, such as an operator joining, appear in the center. The “New messages” divider marks the first unread message. Scrolling up loads older messages; Go to latest takes you back to the last one.

To find out where the agent got an answer from, see [Why the agent answered that way](https://supportfast.ai/en/guide/conversations/why-this-answer.md). If the customer deletes a message, for example on WhatsApp, you see “Message withdrawn” in its place.

### The contact card in the conversation

The Contact card icon opens the person's details in a side panel, without leaving the conversation. If there's no contact yet, create it from here with Add information. See [The contact card](https://supportfast.ai/en/guide/contacts/contact-card.md).

## Frequently asked questions

**I don't hear the sound for new conversations.**

Some browsers don't play sounds until you have clicked at least once on the page.

## See also

- [Stepping in as an operator](https://supportfast.ai/en/guide/conversations/take-over.md): Take the chat, reply and hand it back to the agent.

- [Writing, attachments and tools](https://supportfast.ai/en/guide/conversations/tools.md): Quick replies, notes, files, summary, translation and templates.

- [Exporting and deleting](https://supportfast.ai/en/guide/conversations/export-delete.md): The conversations file and what happens when you delete.

- [Calls: list and details](https://supportfast.ai/en/guide/voice-agent/calls.md): The voice agent's inbox for phone calls.