Side conversations are spaces in a ticket where agents can have a conversation with a specific group of people, or discuss a specific area of concern or course of action. Side conversations are available in email, Slack, and as child tickets.
As an alternative, you can use side conversations in a ticket to initiate and participate in Microsoft Teams threads in channels. The Microsoft Teams side conversations you initiate can be viewed in the ticket and the Microsoft Teams application. Like email, Slack conversations, and child tickets, Microsoft Teams side conversation messages are recorded as ticket events. You can also use them as trigger conditions.
This feature is available only if an admin has installed the latest version of Zendesk for Microsoft Teams and activated side conversations.
Creating a side conversation using Microsoft Teams
You can create a side conversation with Microsoft Teams from within Support.
To create a side conversation using Microsoft Teams
- In a ticket, open the context panel
and click the Side conversations (
) icon, then click the plus sign (+).
- Select Microsoft Teams as the conversation
type.
- Enter the Microsoft Teams’ team, channel, and your message. You
can also add ticket comments.
For more information about the composer, see Rich text editing in the side conversation composer.
You can start a side conversation in one team and channel at a time. You can't combine Microsoft Teams, Slack, and email conversations.
If you have a lot of teams and channels, it may take a few moments to display the list. The Team appears before the channel address, for example, Team 1 - General, Team 2 - General, and so on.
- When you’ve finished composing your message, click Send.
Anyone in the Microsoft Teams channel can view your message and reply to the thread directly, without logging into Zendesk Support.
Microsoft Teams 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.
- When the side conversation is complete, click Done.Note: This action is not reflected in the Microsoft Teams application.
Adding attachments to a Microsoft Teams side conversation
You can add attachments to a side conversation from the Microsoft Teams application by using the bot that appears at the beginning of a conversation. Using the bot allows attachments to appear in both Support and Microsoft Teams.
To add attachments to side conversations from Microsoft Teams
- In Microsoft Teams, open a side conversation.
- Scroll up to the beginning of the conversation where the bot
first responded.
- Click Click here and upload the file you want to
attach.
- Click Upload files.
About limitations and breaking the link between Support and Microsoft Teams
- Deleting messages: You can’t delete a message from a Microsoft Teams side conversation.
- Attachments: Attachments sent directly in the Microsoft Teams side conversation do not appear in the ticket’s side conversation in Support. Likewise, attachments sent directly in Support do not appear in the Microsoft Teams side conversation. For attachments to appear in both Support and Microsoft Teams, see Adding attachments to a Microsoft Teams side conversation.
The following Microsoft Teams features are not supported:
- Direct messages
As a workaround, the administrator can set up separate channels with only one member (for example, “Team Finance Experts – Support”) and add the Zendesk for Microsoft Teams app to this team.
- Microsoft Teams @mentions
- Emoji reactions
- Typing indicators
If the link breaks between Zendesk and Microsoft Teams (for example, an admin removes the Zendesk app from a Microsoft Teams channel or archives or deletes a Microsoft Teams 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 Microsoft Teams channel to send or receive updates to side conversations.
If you're experiencing issues with the Microsoft Teams app, contact Softserve, a third-party group which owns the Microsoft Teams functionality.
29 comments
Chris Sinclair
Will direct messaging be a thing at some point? I have agents jumping out of Zendesk to get faster responses from requestors via teams. It would be better if we could do this in Zendesk.
10
Dan Weber
Direct messaging would also be useful to us. Right now that is one of our main ways to interact with our users. It also would allow us to capture the conversation into the ticket, which the conversation also can have a lot of valuable information in it that we have to just copy/paste into the ticket in order to capture it.
6
Philipp Schumacher
Direct messaging would benefit us a lot too as most of our techs in the field use microsoft teams.
Having the whole conversation at one point would be really beneficial.
7
Josef Prandstetter
Support for "Direct messages" would boost this feature for our daily operations - mainly in these scenarios:
11
Brian
+1 for Direct Messaging
10
Anastasia Kachanova
+1 for Direct Messaging
9
Testing Only
+1 for Direct Messaging, it would be the most useful feature for us too.
Is it already being worked on? If so, a quick update to all of us would be nice.
10
Peter Rittau
+1 more for direct messaging
7
David Birnbaum
+1 here. We mostly use direct messaging for everything, frankly, the Channels just don't work nearly as well as their equivalent in Slack. So, we just create Chats, rename them, and then they function perfectly as a channel equivalent.
5
Mark Ganusevič
This feature is not usable for us without direct messages.
Also, it would be great to be able to use MS Teams to schedule calls/meetings via a ticket.
6
Justin Knight
I agree, we need the feature of Teams chat directly with an Associate also on Teams.
4
Chris Koboldt
Upvoting and commenting to also ask that direct messaging in Teams be added.
5
Tobias Hermanns
Direct Messaging +1
6
Atanas Tomov
+1 for Direct Messaging
5
Tobias Hermanns
Will this be added to Macros?
![](/hc/user_images/1uGiTn_Snmn_X-fokaZ4ug.png)
7
Rhonda Green
+1 for Direct Messaging
5
Juli Hackenberger
+1 for Direct Messaging
4
Justin Knight
+1 for Direct Messaging
3
Sydney Neubauer
+1 for direct messaging - teams does not have intuitive Group creation (created and deleted all the time). It makes it more efficient if you could just message the people you need directly rather than trying to go a group that they may or may not be in
5
Shawna James
1
Max
Would be nice to be able to use a Side Conversation (Teams) in a macro or a trigger, like for Slack, Email or Child tickets
4
Michael B.
Please go upvote this feature request for Side Conversations via MS Teams macro creation.
Side Conversation via Microsoft Teams - Macro
We're hoping for this feature to become available. Thanks!
1
Rhonda Green
Being able to add direct message via side conversation to an individual message in teams would be very helpful to improve our communication for urgent matters. Not all agents have the time to check their outlook email for side conversations and support tickets. Teams direct messaging would be a better solution as it is typically more visible and agents are using teams for other reasons to communicate throughout the organization. Macros could then be written to make this process even easier for the reps. The tool as it exists, just going into groups with Teams is cumbersome as you have to make each individual a group to work the way I would like. Our organization does not allow individuals to set up their own groups so then we would require IT support to get groups set up each time and they want to limit the number of groups being set up also.
2
Tatiana Christensen
+ 1 for Direct messaging
2
Yaniv Dayan
Does the Upload File from the BOT works for you? I upload a file, I get the notification that the file was uploaded, but I can't see it on Zendesk or Teams. How can I download it?
0
Dainne Kiara Lucena-Laxamana
Hi Yaniv Dayan
I went ahead & created a ticket on your behalf to look into the attachment issue your team is getting. Please keep an eye out for our Email soon
1
Daniel Codesal
+1 for direct messaging. Currently we aren't using side conversations as unable to message colleagues directly. Are there plans for this to happen? It would be so useful!
1
Yaniv Dayan
Hi Daniel Codesal Can you add attachments from Teams and see them in Zendesk side conversation, and vice versa?
I just wondering if this is a bug on our side or Zendesk's side.
0
Shane Maddox
+1 for direct messaging.
0