Managing a Conversation
Beyond replying, a few fields on every conversation drive how it's routed, who owns it, and how it shows up in reporting. Most have a one-key shortcut so you can set them without leaving the keyboard.
At a glance
Status: Open, Waiting for User, Closed, + custom (S) | ✅ |
Assignee: assign, reassign, or unassign (A) | ✅ |
Move a conversation between queues (Q) | ✅ |
Tags: AI-added plus your own (T) | ✅ |
Due dates for SLA / follow-up (Shift+D) | ✅ |
| Watch, snooze, link, merge, export | ✅ |
| AI keeps title and summary current | ✅ |
| Fields drive inbox filters and reporting | ✅ |
What you're looking at
The details panel on the right of an open conversation holds these fields. They update live as the conversation proceeds - the AI keeps the title and summary current, and you adjust assignee, status, queue, and tags as you work.
Status
Status tracks where a conversation is in its lifecycle - Open, Waiting for User, Closed, and any custom statuses your org has set up. Change it from the top of the conversation or press S. Status drives the inbox filters and most reporting, so keeping it accurate is what makes the queue trustworthy.
Assignee
The assignee is whoever currently owns the conversation. Press A to change it:
- Unassign to release the conversation back to the queue so another agent can claim it.
- Assign to a teammate by picking their name - useful for handoffs or escalations to a supervisor.
Queue
Conversations can move between queues - for example, if something landed in General but belongs with the Fraud team. Press Q (or click the pencil next to the queue name) and pick the new queue. The conversation leaves your inbox and enters the target team's.
Tags
Tags categorize a conversation (topic, product area, sentiment driver). Sift's AI adds tags automatically as the conversation develops, and you can add your own: press T (or the + next to the existing tags), search, and select. Tags power filtering and analytics, so they're how trends get spotted across thousands of conversations.
Due dates
Set a due date (press Shift+D) when a conversation needs resolving by a specific time - an SLA commitment or a promised follow-up. The due date surfaces in the inbox so time-sensitive work doesn't slip.
Extra actions
Past the everyday fields, each conversation has a set of extra actions for the situations that don't fit "reply and close." Find them in the conversation menu (the icon next to the status): Watch, Snooze, Set due date, Link, Merge, and Export.
Watch
Add a conversation to your watchlist to keep an eye on it without owning it. Watched conversations are filterable in the inbox, so you can check back on something a teammate is handling or a thread you expect to flare up.
Snooze
Snooze removes a conversation from your queue for a set time. When the snooze ends, it reappears in your inbox. Use it for "waiting on the customer" or "circle back tomorrow" so the conversation isn't cluttering your active list in the meantime. Snoozed conversations are filterable too. (Shortcut: Shift+S.)
Link action
Connect two related conversations without closing either one. Both stay open and active, cross-referenced so anyone reading one sees the other. Use it when two conversations are about the same underlying issue but each still needs its own resolution.
Merge action
Link two related conversations and close one of them. The closed conversation is linked to the open one for reference. Use it for true duplicates - the same customer reaching out twice, or one issue split across two threads.
Export
Export a conversation to a JSON file to share internally - for example, handing a bug report to product or engineering with the full conversation and metadata intact.