| Announced on | Rollout starts | Rollout ends |
|---|---|---|
| May 25, 2022 | To be determined | Nov 27, 2023 |
We're planning to move side conversations to the context panel for a more seamless integration with Agent Workspace.
This announcement includes these sections:
What’s changing, and why?
On Agent Workspace enabled accounts, side conversations will move from their current position above the ticket window to the context panel in Agent Workspace. The context panel is only available when Agent Workspace is enabled. For example, here’s what this will look like:
To see your side conversations, you will need to open a ticket, and then click this side conversation icon in the right sidebar:
Moving side conversations here integrates the functionality more tightly with Agent Workspace, and gives users more room to view and draft messages without obstructing the ticket view thanks to the adjustability of the context panel.
What do I need to do?
Once this change occurs, if Agent Workspace is enabled, you will be able to use side conversations from the context panel. Your side conversations content and notifications will not be affected and you’ll enjoy all the same functionality as before.
If Agent Workspace is not enabled, you are using the standard agent interface instead, and so you are unaffected by this change. No action is needed. Your side conversations will remain in their current position above the ticket window.
59 Comments
Nice 🫶🏼
Will there still be inline indications of a side conversation having taken place? Today they look like internal comments, it is very obvious to all agents that a side conversation has taken place. We do use the agent workspace, but I don't think many agents are utilizing the context panel. If there is no indication that a side conversation has been created inline with the ticket comments, it may be completely missed by the agents if the context panel is collapsed. The example above does not explain this. Can you put together a quick explainer video?
David Brown yes, the inline side conversations in the conversation log will still be there for easy access. The side conversations context panel icon will have a badge indicator if there are unread side conversations within it, so it will still indicate it even if the panel isn't currently active. We'll have more info as we get closer to the rollout!
Very excited for this change! On additional question:
This would be super helpful.
RJ Hines This move to the context panel won't affect the child ticket behavior, but we are doing some investigation into evolving their behavior in a separate track. Mainly, we're looking at a way to make child tickets private tickets by default and displaying the internal notes of private child tickets so that truly internal collaborative child tickets can have the entire conversation represented and be able to safely have the same requester as the parent, etc. So, not part of this, but stay tuned.
Toby Sterrett Great work, that update looks good! I think it will also give the agent better visibility when applying a macro with both a comment on the ticket and also within a new side conversation!
"...a way to make child tickets private tickets by default..." this will be a huge win for us, enabling us to better "split" tickets and not have the first message on the side conversation potentially be part of the future conversation on that ticket, so really looking forward to that!
I hope you're also working on a way to bring over tags (or ticket field values) from the parent ticket to the child ticket - that would help eliminate a lot of band-aid solutions we currently employ and give a better agent- and admin experience 😀
Jacob the Moderator glad to hear the ideas around child tickets will be useful! As for bringing over tags and the ticket form from the parent, be on the lookout for an announcement very soon :)
Love this improvement! One thing we still would do almost anything for is the ability to merge a ticket into a Side Conversation. That would resolve so many cases with emails from other ticket systems that do not become part of the original side conversation that created the ticket at this third party.
Martijn Snels • pluscloud.nl - Zendesk Premier Partner do you mean connecting a ticket into another ticket by making it a child ticket side conversation? Or converting the ticket's conversation into an email side conversation and closing the original ticket?
I think this is a great move. It actually gives more meaning to the term "side conversations" because they will now truly live on the side of a ticket. :)
Hey Toby Sterrett, can we expect changes in how signatures are going to be applied in new SC? There are known issues with signature formatting, so I'm just wondering.
Hey all, I wanted to give everyone a status update. We're making great progress on the migration of side conversations to the Context Panel, but it's going to need a bit more time in the oven as we polish things up and fix some bugs.
While we’re at it, we're also adding the ability to initiate the move as a setting in the Context Panel section of the Admin Center rather than rolling it out to every account. We expect to finish up the final touches and release the option as a beta feature you can flip on starting the week of July 25, 2022. This will give you more control over making the move with your agents, and will let you try things out on your sandbox if you want to kick the tires first. And, as always, we'd love to get your feedback here on this post or by starting a discussion in the community when you do.
Here's a peek at some more of what's coming:
This move is more than just a lift and shift over to the new spot, but a more extensive redesign for its new home and the interactions that come along with it. Side conversations will feel more at home within the Context Panel in the Agent Workspace, the labels are more clear, and it all benefits from the resizable context panel. And, we couldn't help sneak a few other goodies in there as well 😉
Please be sure to subscribe to updates on this post by clicking Follow in the upper right corner of this article so you can be kept up to date on when it starts rolling out!
Is there an update on this?
Hey Andrew Chu we're getting really close. Currently finishing up drag and drop behavior for attachments. It'll likely be a couple more weeks or so before we can enable the option, but it's getting very close.
hey Toby Sterrett
If that's the case, can you please update the rollout details at the top of this article? I too have also been eagerly checking my account for this rollout. Thanks in advance. :)
Best,
Amie
Hi Amie and Andrew,
Apologies for the delay. We've moved the rollout out a few weeks. I updated the rollout dates at the top of the Announcement.
Still estimated end of September?
Hi John,
Thanks for checking! We are still on track for a Beta at the end of Sept, but I will let you know if that changes.
Lisa Kelly
Hello there.
Just wondering if there are any further updates about the move? Sorry to ask, but I think i speak for all those watching this currently :)
Thanks for your attention.
Hey everyone! Clearly the end of September has slipped by, but we're wrapping up a couple final things, mostly around the styling of the message composer. There are a few edges cases we haven't been able to get figured out just yet in the new location, so we're going to be splitting that work out and getting it out with the older styling for the time being. Once we get that finished up and the rest of it polished up we'll make it available. Then we'll revisit the new styling and get that out in a follow up release.
Toby Sterrett We often get feedback from agents that say the blue dot in the Side Conversation button for new activities is not visible enough. Would this be something that is in scope of this change to be improved?
Any update on this?
Hi Riah,
Thanks for checking! The product team is hoping to start the rollout by mid-Dec, 2022. We'll post a comment in this article when the rollout starts.
Hi, will this be released tonight or over the weekend?
I know that this was delayed multiple times already so will this be proceeding as planned?
+1. My team is also asking about this as well. There has not been an update on this for over a month, and the timeframe indicated in the release notes is now upon us.
Hey all, apologies for the delays on the context panel migration. The move turned out to be much more complex than initially anticipated, and I missed the mark when estimating the time frames for the announcement. I take responsibility for that, and aim to avoid this type of situation with future releases. I'm sorry for any unnecessary hardship this may have caused with your planning.
We're currently planning to start the full rollout in early January in order to avoid any issues that may arise over the holidays. That will give us a better opportunity to ensure a smooth rollout and be as responsive as we can to feedback, as well as provide a smoother two-step onboarding process that first lets admins/owners know the setting is available, and then a tooltip to point agents to the new location once it has been enabled.
However, if you'd like your account(s) to be enabled before this weekend, sign up here and we'll get it enabled on your account or sandbox. Again, the onboarding process won't fully rollout until after the holidays, but if you'd like to get access to enabling the functionality before then we can make that happen. Please note that starting on Dec 17th we'll be unable to activate the functionality until the full rollout, so please try to sign up today if you're interested!
Hi, Toby Sterrett, is there any update on when this feature will be released? Thanks!
Hi Toby Sterrett, Lisa Kelly Just another "bump" regarding this one.
It would be good to know of any updates, to plan ahead now the early January rollout, has long passed.
Our agents arrive usually before I do to start their day, and I want to be sure to have this brought to their attention and avoid any unnecessary confusion.
Thanks
Hi Ryan Boyer and Aaran Chilinski - Customer Success Developer – we're currently in the home stretch. We're looking to start rolling out the access to opt into the context panel move to everyone starting late next week. If you'd like access to it earlier, let me know. I'll post in this thread when all accounts have been enabled. Once it's enabled in your account, if you're an Admin user you should see a tooltip on the context panel letting you know you can toggle it on.
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