All Zendesk Suite and Zendesk Support customers can add at least one X (formerly Twitter) account so that public messages, such as public mentions, public replies to your posts, and public likes to posts, become tickets. Your agents will be able to see and respond to these tickets from the agent interface, just like any other ticket.

What's my plan?
All Suites Team, Growth, Professional, Enterprise, or Enterprise Plus
Support Team, Professional, or Enterprise

Summary: ◀▼

You can add X (formerly Twitter) accounts to convert public mentions, replies, and likes into tickets for agents to manage. Suite plans support multiple accounts and private messages, while Support plans allow one account with public messages only. Customize settings to auto-convert posts, reply from specific accounts, and append ticket links. Use business rules to prioritize tickets and reauthorize accounts if deauthorized.

Location: Admin Center > Channels > Messaging and social > X Corp accounts

All Zendesk Suite and Zendesk Support customers can add at least one X (formerly Twitter) account so that public messages, such as public mentions, public replies to your posts, and public likes to posts, become tickets. Your agents will be able to see and respond to these tickets from the agent interface, just like any other ticket.

Additionally, Zendesk Suite customers can add multiple accounts and they can receive public messages and private messages from those accounts.

Zendesk Support plans One X handle with public messages only. Private messages are not supported.
Zendesk Suite plans Up to 5 X handles with public and private messages.

You must be an administrator to add an X channel.

This article describes adding an X channel for public messaging with your customers. To set up a channel for private messaging with your customers, see Adding X DM channels.

This article includes these sections:

  • How the X channel works
  • Adding X accounts to Support
  • Editing X account settings
  • Supporting XChat (encrypted direct messages)
  • Removing X accounts
  • Appending ticket links to outgoing posts
  • Managing X tickets with business rules
  • Understanding why your X account might be deauthorized

How the X channel works

Zendesk monitors X accounts and converts posts to tickets as needed. All post activity between agents and X users is added as ticket comments. You can do the following:

  • Convert a post into a ticket and respond to the user with a post, or move the conversation to email
  • Bulk convert multiple posts into tickets in one step
  • Convert posts to tickets outside of Zendesk by liking a post
  • Automatically capture public mentions and direct messages as tickets
  • Append ticket links to outgoing posts
  • Select which of your accounts agents are allowed to use when sending outgoing posts
  • Monitor and take action on activity using business rules

Only administrators have access to the incoming posts. However, once posts have been converted to tickets, all agents have access to the tickets, unless you have restricted agent access to certain types of tickets.

Once a post becomes a ticket, it behaves just like any other ticket in Zendesk, except that you have the option of replying back to the user with a public post or moving the conversation to email.

You can control if and how incoming posts become tickets. The approach you take might be based on your overall traffic or the number of agents you have available. Here are several scenarios for managing incoming posts:

  • Likes. Convert posts outside of Zendesk by liking them in your X client. This approach allows you to manually choose posts to convert before they ever reach Zendesk.
  • Mentions and direct messages. Automatically create tickets from public posts that contain your X handle or from direct messages. Sometimes, tickets that are not support requests and that don't need follow-up are created. You can manage these out of your ticket queue by manually solving and closing or deleting them. Group direct messages are not supported and do not create tickets.
  • Triggers. Use one or more triggers to monitor new support requests that originate from your X channel. You can use the trigger condition Ticket Channel, which has the following three sources: X Corp, X Corp DM (direct message), and X Corp Like. The advantage to this approach is that you have much more control over the creation and management of X-based tickets. See Managing X tickets with business rules.

Note the following limits:

  • It can take up to 15 minutes for a ticket to be created from a post.
  • Each X ticket has a limit of 5,000 comments. After reaching the limit, Zendesk stops importing new posts as comments on the ticket.

Adding X accounts

You can add an X account to your Zendesk account so that posts become tickets, and your agents can see and respond to these tickets, just like any other ticket.

The number of handles and the type of messaging supported by your account depends on your plan type.

Zendesk Support plans One X handle with public messages only. Private messages are not supported.
Zendesk Suite plans Up to 5 X handles with public and private messages.

To add an X account

  1. In Admin Center, click Channels in the sidebar, then select Messaging and social > X Corp accounts.
  2. Select the X Corp accounts tab.
  3. Click Add your first X Corp account.
  4. You'll be prompted to log in to X Corp and then authorize Zendesk to use your account. Enter your login information and then click Authorize App.

You'll want to edit the account's settings to control how posts to this account are handled (see Editing X account settings).

Editing X account settings

After you've added an X account, you can edit the account's settings to control how posts to this account are handled.

You can choose to automatically convert public mentions and direct messages into tickets. If you enable these, the option to manually convert posts to tickets will no longer be available for that account.

By default any responses to a post will be from the account the post was directed to. You can select a different account from the Reply as drop-down list under the ticket reply box. If you want to automatically respond from one account, you can disable Allow replies via this account when editing your other X accounts.

To edit settings for an X account

  1. In Admin Center, click Channels in the sidebar, then select Messaging and social > X Corp accounts.
  2. Select the X Corp accounts tab.
  3. Click Edit beside the account you want to edit.
  4. Update settings as needed.

    The settings are described in the following table.

  5. Click Update X Corp account.
Setting Description

Allow replies via this account

This setting allows agents to use this account when replying to an X ticket.

Agents can select the account below the reply box on an X ticket:

Replies to tickets from X retain the original inbound format.

For example, if the ticket was created from a public message, then the agent's reply from within Zendesk will also be a reply to that public message. If the ticket was created from a post mentioning your X handle (for example @Zendesk), then the agent's reply from within Zendesk will be a reply post, threaded to the sender's original mention.

Make this the default account
Note: This setting appears when Allow replies via this account is set to yes.

Use this account by default to reply to tickets that were created from posts to your other X accounts that don’t allow replies.

When yes, the Reply as drop-down list shows the name of this account by default. However, agents can still choose a different reply-enabled account from the drop-down list, if desired and available.

You can only have one default account at a time. Your old default account becomes a non-default account when set to no.

Bulk updating tickets

Setting a default X account can affect bulk ticket updates in a few ways.

When a customer replies to an X account that allows replies:

  • If the X account is the default account, agent replies are sent from that account.
  • If a different, separate X account is the default account, agent replies are sent from the default account instead of the account that the customer initially replied to.

When a customer replies to an X account that doesn't allow replies:

  • If there is a default X account, agent replies are sent from the default account.
  • If there is no default X account, an error appears because the account doesn't allow replies.

For information about how to bulk update tickets, see Bulk updating tickets.

Capture public mentions as tickets

This automatically converts any public post containing your X handle (for example, @mondocam) to a ticket.

Capture incoming direct messages as tickets

This automatically converts incoming direct messages into tickets so that your customers can contact you privately rather than publicly. Depending on your X account settings, you can either receive direct messages from anyone or only from users you follow. You can reply to anyone who sends you a direct message.

If you turn on this option, you can optionally support XChat for direct messages to message X users using the encrypted XChat experience.

If you add an X DM channel, turn off this setting. Otherwise duplicate tickets are created when a private message is received.

Track Likes

This automatically converts a post that you like to a ticket. For example, if you're managing your X stream using X.com, you have the option of manually liking the post by clicking the heart icon.

Supporting XChat (encrypted direct messages)

X is migrating direct messages to XChat, which uses encryption. To continue capturing and replying to private messages in Zendesk for accounts that have migrated to XChat, you must first enable XChat in X, which includes setting up a 4-digit PIN. Then, enable XChat in your X Corp account settings in Zendesk.

To learn more about XChat, including how to send encrypted messages, see the About Chat topic on the X Help Center.

Note the following limitations when using XChat messaging with Zendesk:
  • Zendesk supports encrypted text-only direct messages. Media attachments aren’t supported.
  • Real-time streaming (X Activity API) isn’t supported.
  • If XChat isn’t enabled in X, or the PIN isn’t confirmed in Zendesk, Zendesk may be unable to process DMs for users who have migrated to XChat.
To enable XChat in Zendesk (encrypted DMs become tickets)
  1. Enable XChat in your X account.
  2. In Admin Center, click Channels in the sidebar, then select Messaging and social > X Corp accounts.
  3. Select the X Corp accounts tab.
  4. Click Edit beside the account you want to edit.
  5. Under Use XChat for direct messages, click Yes.
  6. In XChat PIN, enter the 4-digit PIN you set up in the X app.
  7. Click Confirm PIN to validate the PIN.
  8. Click Update X Corp account to save your changes.

To update your XChat PIN in Zendesk

If you change your PIN in X, you must update it in Zendesk as well.

  1. In Admin Center, click Channels in the sidebar, then select Messaging and social > X Corp accounts.
  2. Select the X Corp accounts tab.
  3. Click Edit beside the account you want to edit.
  4. Enter the new XChat PIN, then click Confirm PIN.
  5. Click Update XCorp account to save.

Removing X accounts

You can remove an X account by deactivating it or unlinking it. If you deactivate an account, it is inactive in Zendesk but you can reactivate it at any time. If you unlink an account, it is removed from Zendesk.

To deactivate an X account

  1. In Admin Center, click Channels in the sidebar, then select Messaging and social > X Corp accounts.
  2. Select the X Corp accounts tab.
  3. Click Deactivate beside the account you want to deactivate.

    The account is deactivated. It will not turn posts into tickets and you cannot reply using it. You can reactivate account at any time. 

To unlink an X account

  1. In Admin Center, click Channels in the sidebar, then select Messaging and social > X Corp accounts.
  2. Select the X Corp accounts tab.
  3. Click Unlink beside the account you want to remove from your X channel.
  4. Click OK to confirm.

    The account is unlinked.

Appending ticket links to outgoing posts

Note: You must have an account with an activated help center to use this feature and you must have enabled Twitter social SSO for end users.

Another option for your outgoing posts is to append a shortened URL to the ticket you created from the post. This allows the X user to access the help center ticket page via their X account. In other words, remote authentication is used to log in through X to Zendesk (end users must sign in to Zendesk to see the ticket page).

Once an X user has access to the ticket page, they can add a longer comment than the 280 character limit of a post. They can also update their user profile (adding their email address for example).

You have the option of allowing the agent to decide if a shortened or the original URL is used in the response. And, you can choose one of several URL shortening services to use.

To append ticket links to outgoing posts

  1. In Admin Center, click Channels in the sidebar, then select Messaging and social > X Corp accounts.
  2. Select the General settings tab.

    You must have activated help center to see this tab.

  3. Click Yes next to Append ticket links to outgoing tweets? to enable the ticket links.

    You must have enabled Twitter social SSO for end users to see this setting.

  4. If you want agents to decide when to use shortened URLs, deselect the Always include shortened ticket URL option. It is selected by default.
  5. Click Save tab.

Managing X tickets with business rules

A number of conditions are available to manage your X tickets using business rules.

As with other channels, you can detect a ticket's source using the Ticket Channel condition in automations, reports, triggers, and views. There are three source types you can use in the Ticket Channel condition: X Corp, X Corp DM (direct message), and X Corp Like.

If, for example, you wanted to create separate views of each of the source types, you simply choose the Ticket Channel condition and then select the type.

In addition to the channel source types, three other X conditions are available in triggers:

  • Requester's number of X Corp followers...
  • Requester's number of posts...
  • Requester is verified by X Corp
The first two conditions help you to determine how active and potentially influential a user is, which may influence how you manage their posts. For example, you might want to set X tickets from more highly visible users to Urgent so that you respond as quickly as possible. Here's an example of what a trigger like that might look like:

The Requester is verified by X Corp condition is a special type of X account that has had its identity verified. Knowing that an account has been verified may be important to you in determining how to handle tickets from that account.

Understanding why your X account might be deauthorized

Zendesk constantly monitors your X accounts for new public mentions and direct messages. If Zendesk cannot connect with your account, it will send an email notification to all admins on your Zendesk account.

Common reasons your X account might become deauthorized include:

  • The password on your account has changed.
  • The account no longer permits Zendesk to view its timeline and post on its behalf. This can happen if Zendesk has been removed from the list of allowed apps in your X account.
  • Zendesk receives a consistent response from X Corp indicating that Zendesk is not authorized to access your X account’s content. This should only happen due to an error in the X Corp platform.
  • Zendesk removes all X handles that have had no traffic in the last 20 days. "Traffic" is defined as either an X comment or post on a public channel that results in a ticket, or a direct message (DM) sent using Zendesk’s legacy DM system through the channels integration.

If you receive notification that an X account has become deauthorized, you need to reauthorize the affected account in Zendesk.

To reauthorize your X account
  • In Admin Center, click Channels in the sidebar, then select Messaging and social > X Corp accounts.
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