| Announced on | Rollout starts | Rollout ends |
|---|---|---|
| May 25, 2022 | To be determined | To be determined |
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.
43 Comments
Hi, will this be released tonight or over the weekend?
Hi, Toby Sterrett, is there any update on when this feature will be released? Thanks!
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!
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.
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!
Hey everyone, apologies for the continued delays. We're in final feature and deployment reviews right now. In the meantime, I just added more EAP signups to the feature, and I'll add more up until we're able to get to full rollout. If you'd like early access, make sure you sign up and we'll get you in.
Jacob Christensen 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 :)
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.
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?
Still estimated end of September?
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. :)
Hi, Toby Sterrett, we are getting lots of positive feedback from our customers. It's a much better place for Side Conversations.
We do have one point of feedback. When your message gets long, the Send button can disappear, and you have to scroll down within the Side conversation to find it again. We think it would be good if the Send button (and the rest of the buttons next to) always stay in view, no matter where you are in the Side Conversation. Users are so used to only having to hit the Submit button, that they often forget to hit Send if they have scrolled up a bit in the Side conversation.
If this is not the correct place for this feedback, please let me know!
Hello,
I have checked the new location of Side Conversations in one of our Sandbox environments. Although the new position looks quite fine, I miss a lot the indicator/s that there is a new message or an update in a side conversation (basically the "blue dots" of the original location). In addition, the list of comments / events is not showing the latest update on a side conversation as the latest update. As a summary, the new location does not give the agent the information that there are updates (and probably important) in a side conversations. Are you going to review this?
Thanks and best regards,
Alfredo
Nice 🫶🏼
Hey Oliver Tietze,
I just checked on this for you and it looks like it can be turned off. In fact, it looks like an admin has to also turn this feature ON to move it to the context panel, it wasn't an automatic rollout/change.
Perhaps another admin in your account switched this on with your knowledge or understanding of the impact it might cause on agents.
Screenshot below of where inside the Admin Centre you can revert this change.
Keep in mind - at some point, Zendesk will probably enforce this change on the account and take away the ability to revert back (much like they did when the new agent workspace was rolled out).
Hope this helps. :)
Best,
Amie
I know that this was delayed multiple times already so will this be proceeding as planned?
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?
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 😀
+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.
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.
Toby Sterrett, just checking in to see when we will see the tooltip in our context panel to enable this. Thanks!
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Any update on this?
Hi Toby Sterrett & Lisa Kelly, Any updates on the rollout. The posted timeline advises rollout finishes today...???
It seems that this was NOW rolled out without further notice, breaking the learned workflows of our Agent team (another time...)
The question above
is highly relevant for us. Is there an option to switch back to the old behaviour or would we have to switch forward to a new support tool finally?
Sad
Oliver
Toby Sterrett I would like this enabling for our account please. Thanks!
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