The Zendesk Agent Workspace enables agents to manage Support, Chat, Talk, and messaging conversations within the same interface. Administrators can activate or deactivate this workspace for their Zendesk account.
This article contains the following sections:
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Preparing to activate or deactivate
Before you can activate the Agent Workspace for the first time on an existing account, you'll need to migrate your Chat departments into groups. For details, see Migrating to the Zendesk Agent Workspace.
Here are some rules for who can activate and deactivate the Agent Workspace:
- New accounts created after July 28, 2020 have the workspace activated by default and you don't need to migrate.
- Accounts created after July 12, 2023 have the Agent Workspace automatically activated and you cannot deactivate it.
- Some accounts were automatically upgraded to the Agent Workspace and you cannot deactivate it.
- For some larger, high-volume accounts, you may need to work with someone from Zendesk to activate the workspace and migrate your account. We provide a checklist to help you determine if your account is a good fit for migration.
The Agent Workspace is an account-wide setting that impacts all the agents on your account. You cannot selectively activate or deactivate it for certain agents. When you activate or deactivate the Agent Workspace, agents must refresh their browsers to see the change. Make sure your agents wrap up any chats, calls, or unsaved tickets when you activate or deactivate the workspace. Otherwise, unsaved ticket replies, ongoing chats, and call recordings may be lost. When the workspace is activated, Chat tickets cannot be updated using the Support mobile app.
If you prefer, you can test out the migration on a Sandbox account first. This gives you time to try out the Agent Workspace and train your agents before using the workspace in a production environment.
Activating the Agent Workspace
To turn on the Agent Workspace
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In Admin Center, click
Workspaces in the sidebar, then select Agent tools > Agent Workspace.
You’ll see a description of some of the main Agent Workspace features with links to more information.
- Select Turn on the Agent Workspace.
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Save your changes.
When the workspace is successfully activated, a warning message appears for agents currently working in the account.
- Make sure your agents wrap up any messages, calls, or unsaved tickets, then click Switch workspace.
To prevent application conflicts and potential tracking issues, Zendesk does not recommend using the Support Chat app with the Zendesk Agent Workspace. When the Agent Workspace is activated, the Support Chat app is automatically deactivated on your account. If you subsequently deactivate the Agent Workspace and you want to use the Chat app, you have to manually re-activate it.
To get the full agent experience, after you activate the workspace, you can set up social messaging channels and web messaging channels for the Zendesk Agent Workspace.
Deactivating the Agent Workspace
For some accounts, you can deactivate the Agent Workspace if desired and revert to a standard agent interface without unified conversations. If your account has messaging channels, you'll need to delete the social messaging channels and deactivate the web messaging channels. Also, make sure your agents close out all existing messaging tickets when you deactivate the workspace.
To turn off the Agent Workspace
- In Admin Center, click Workspaces in the sidebar, then select Agent tools > Agent Workspace.
- Deselect Turn on the Agent Workspace.
- When a confirmation message appears, select Turn off Agent Workspace.
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Save your changes.
After the workspace is successfully deactivated, a warning message appears for agents currently working in the account.
- Make sure your agents wrap up any messages, calls, or unsaved tickets, then click Switch workspace.
Deactivating the Agent Workspace automatically deactivates features that depend on the Agent Workspace, including focus mode, omnichannel routing, and unified agent statuses.