Using Slack in side conversations

Fastpath: Admin Center > Objects and rules > Tickets > Settings

This feature is available only if the administrator has installed the latest version of Slack for Zendesk Support and enabled side conversations.

As an alternative to email-based side conversations, agents can use side conversations in a ticket to initiate and participate in Slack threads. The Slack side conversations you initiate are viewable in the ticket and in the Slack application. Like email conversations, Slack side conversations are recorded as ticket events and you can use them as trigger conditions.

Note: If you invite your bot and external users to a Slack Connect channel owned by an external workspace, side conversations won't work. To ensure side conversations work correctly, invite your bot and external users to a Slack Connect channel owned by your workspace.

This article includes these topics:

• Creating a side conversation using Slack
• Deleting a Slack side conversation
• About limitations and breaking the link between Support and Slack

Creating a side conversation using Slack

Note: Side conversations in the Agent Workspace context panel is currently in an Early Access Program (EAP). You can sign up for the EAP here.

When you create a side conversation, you choose between using email or using Slack.

To create a side conversation using Slack

1. In a ticket, open the context panel and click the Side conversations () icon, then click the plus sign (+).

   If you don’t have the Agent Workspace, in a ticket click the Side Conversations plus sign (+) in the upper-left.

2. Select Slack as the conversation type.

   

3. Enter the Slack channel and your message. You can also add attachments.

   

   For more information about the composer, see Rich text editing in the side conversation composer.

   You start a side conversation in one Slack channel at a time. You cannot combine Slack and email conversations. If you have a lot of Slack channels, it may take a few moments to display the list of available channels.

   If you have multiple Slack workspaces connected to Zendesk Support, the workspace appears before the channel address. For example. Slack Workspace 1 - #general, Slack Workspace 2 - #general, and so on.

4. When you’ve finished composing your message, click Send.

   The team in the Slack channel can view your message and reply to the thread directly, without logging into Support.

   The Slack replies are automatically included in the ticket’s side conversation. The conversation can continue back and forth, as long as necessary, until you get the information you need.

   Note: You may experience some delay in updates that occur between Slack and ticket side conversations. Typically, the delay is about 5 seconds, but can be 30 seconds or longer.
5. When the side conversation is complete, click Done.

Deleting a Slack side conversation

To delete a Slack side conversation, you must be the agent who created the Slack side conversation or an administrator.

To delete a Slack side conversation

1. In a ticket, open the context panel and click the Side conversations () icon.

   If you don’t have the Agent Workspace, in a ticket click Side Conversations in the upper-left.

   A list of side conversations for the ticket appears.

2. Select the side conversation you want to delete.

   You can only delete Slack side conversations. You cannot delete email side conversations.

3. Click the options menu icon () on the right side of the conversation, then select Delete message.

   

4. When a confirmation message appears, click Delete to confirm the deletion.

   When you delete, the side conversation is removed from the ticket and it is also removed from Slack. Messages edited or deleted on the Slack side are also reflected in side conversations.

About limitations and breaking the link between Support and Slack

You can add attachments to Slack side conversations, but you can't initiate macros or insert ticket comments of more than 1,000 characters. The following Slack features are not supported:

• Direct messages

  As a workaround, the administrator can set up private Slack channels that only have one member. For example, #lkelly-private and add them to the Slack for Zendesk integration.

• @mentions

  Slack @mentions are not supported, but you can include @here to notify everyone currently logged in or @channel to alert every member of a channel.

• Emoji reactions
• Typing indicators

If the link breaks between Zendesk and Slack, for example, if an admin removes the Zendesk app from a Slack channel or if they archive or delete a Slack channel that you used for side conversations, you can still open and view these side conversations in a ticket, but you can no longer use that Slack channel to send or receive updates to side conversations.