Turning on idle timeout for unified agent statuses

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Quick Look: Admin Center > Objects and rules > Omnichannel routing > Idle timeout

Unified agent status is part of omnichannel routing and provides a way for agents to control availability for Support, Talk, and Messaging from a single menu. When idle timeout is disabled, an agent's status isn't inferred based on Zendesk session activity and must be set manually. Enabling an idle timeout helps ensure agents are available and active when work is routed to them.

This article contains the following topics:

• Turning on idle timeout
• Configuring the idle timeout settings
• Disabling idle timeout

Turning on idle timeout

Idle timeout is turned off by default and must be enabled if you want Zendesk to infer agent status based on session activity. When enabled, the default idle timeout configuration sets an agent's status to away on all channels after 10 minutes of inactivity, where inactivity is defined as no mouse or keyboard interactions within the browser.

Note: When idle timeout is on, it overrides all unified agent statuses, even if the agent is already set to offline for all channels.

To turn on idle timeout

1. In Admin Center, click Objects and rules in the sidebar, select Omnichannel routing > Idle timeout.
2. Select Turn on idle timeout.
3. Click Save.

Configuring the idle timeout settings

After enabling the idle timeout feature, admins can adjust the duration agents can be idle before an idle status is automatically assigned and choose between Away and Offline as the idle status to use on all channels.

To edit the idle timeout settings

1. In Admin Center, click Objects and rules in the sidebar, select Omnichannel routing > Idle timeout.
2. Update the Idle time in minutes to a whole number between 5 and 1440.
3. Select the preferred fallback status for all channels: Away or Offline.
4. Click Save.

Disabling idle timeout

Admins can disable idle timeout. However, if the feature is disabled, agent statuses won't be inferred based on session connectivity unless one of the following events is detected, in which case they'd be set to offline:

• An agent closes the Agent Workspace without signing out (by closing down their computer or browser window or putting their computer to sleep)
• An agent’s connection is lost due to a network outage

Make sure you inform agents if you disable the fallback status for idle agents. They will need to manually set themselves to away or offline when they are unavailable to receive work.

To disable idle status

1. In Admin Center, click Objects and rules in the sidebar, select Omnichannel routing > Idle timeout.
2. Uncheck Turn on idle status and click Save.
3. Click Deactivate idle timeout in the confirmation dialog.