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Configuring the automatic release of an agent’s messaging capacity lets admins specify how long a conversation can go without input from an end user before it’s considered inactive. Depending on your omnichannel routing configuration, this can remove the ticket from an agent’s capacity, allowing another conversation to be routed to them without requiring them to manually update the ticket status.
This article describes how admins can configure the auto-release capacity settings, including the inactivity period and the ticket status used for inactive messaging tickets.
About active and inactive messaging tickets
- Active tickets are those with recent responses from the end user.
-
Inactive tickets are those that haven’t had a response from the end
user in a specified period of time, or that have a status other than
New or Open. By default, Zendesk defines a messaging
ticket as inactive when an end user hasn’t sent a reply in the last 10
minutes. Note: The capacity release settings, including the inactivity period, apply only to messaging conversations already assigned to agents. The default inactivity period of 10 minutes is used for all unassigned messaging conversations
Considerations when using the capacity release settings
Consider the following when turning on and configuring the automatic release of agent capacity:
- The improved messaging backend is required.
- If you don’t configure the auto-release capacity settings, Zendesk uses a default inactivity period of 10 minutes without a response from the end user.
- The auto-release capacity settings are applied to all open messaging tickets currently assigned to agents and to those that are created or re-opened after these settings are saved.
- When using the default inactivity period and the messaging activity routing setting for omnichannel routing is turned off, messaging tickets no longer count towards an agent’s capacity when they become inactive, but the tickets' status doesn’t change.
- The auto-release capacity setting provides a powerful way to manage agent capacity when used with omnichannel routing, but can also be used effectively with other business rules that rely on changes in ticket status.
- You must be an admin to configure the auto-release capacity setting.
- To avoid any unexpected behavior, we recommend turning on the auto-release capacity setting during a low-volume time.
- It can take up to 10 minutes for the auto-release capacity setting to begin working.
Configuring the auto-release capacity setting
Admins can use the auto-release capacity setting to help agents manage their capacities. It can also help business rules, such as triggers, to run more effectively on tickets by altering the ticket status when a conversation becomes inactive. The change in ticket status is captured in the ticket’s audit events:
When using omnichannel routing without messaging activity routing, the capacity release settings can increase efficiency by automatically releasing an agent's capacity without requiring them to alter the ticket's status.
- In Admin Center, click
Channels in the sidebar, then select Messaging and social >
Messaging. - In the Advanced section, click Capacity release.
- Select Turn on auto-release capacity.
- Under Inactivity period, enter a whole number between 3 and 15. This is the time in minutes a conversation can go without a reply from an end user before being considered inactive. This time is measured from the agent’s last message.
- Under Ticket status for inactive conversations, select a status to automatically apply to inactive tickets. You can select Pending, On-hold, Solved, or a custom status mapped to these ticket status categories, but New and Open statuses can’t be used. Triggers using the selected status as a condition will fire when the new status is applied.
- Click Save settings.
14 comments
Megan M. Romero
Do the “recent responses” only apply to Messaging response? If a ticket was opened via Messaging but the agent is not only communicating with end-user via email, does that count as an “inactive mssaging ticket?” If so, I'm particularly curious about whether the ticket status would keep updating to whatever is defined in this setting because I would want the agent to be able to manage the ticket status at that point.
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Megan Oksendahl
I'm trying to use this feature, but the directions do not match my environment. We do use Messaging and OmniChannel Routing.
Again, here are the directions I am following from this article:
However, the only options under advanced settings are Email Identities and Conversation Control. There is no option for Capacity release.
Is this still available? Why can't I locate this setting following said directions?
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Erkin Yaşar
I can not locate this setting also by following the said directions. Could you please enlighten us?
Thanks.
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Carl
If I enable the auto-release capacity and the ticket with the open status is transferred to another group for follow-up, the system will also mark it as pending. In that case, the next agent in another group cannot follow up. How can we prevent that?
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Unassigned User
Why capacity release not available on our setting?
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Kris
We are starting to test this feature and some initial features we'd like is the ability to not change the status (ie. keep it Open) and to target this in triggers for tagging and other actions.
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Tom J
I agree with Kris, no need to change the status as the ticket may need to be escalated, solved, or whatever. But simply releasing the capacity if its inactive would be the ideal feature. Because of this, we have not enabled it, unfortunately.
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Kris
Not ideal, but we used a trigger to automate reopening the ones Capacity Release applied to since the only other way we set holds is manually via web so we were able to target them using channels. We don't have it on yet because we aren't migrated to the new backend yet.
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John Tieu
Hi Kris, how did you trigger off the capacity release being applied? I'm not seeing a condition for it in triggers.
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Kris
We have ours set to use On Hold so this is what ours looks like, so it's not targetable directly but since we only set things to On Hold manually otherwise for Messaging this is working for us for now (though we'd prefer something more specific):
0
Lin*
Hey, if we enable this autorelease option will it also automatically end sessions if we have the “Ending sessions” option enabled?
I guess that it won't but it would be great if that was an option that you can choose if you enable the autorelease in such cases.
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Syafiq
Can this be use with Messaging trigger to send message to end user?
e.g. When capacity release kicks in > Status changed to Pending > Use Messaging trigger to send message to end user notifying that there's an update from the agent or message asking if the end user is still active
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Jesus Gonzalez
Hi everyone!
I have a question regarding Messaging. Does anyone know if it's possible to enable the Accept button when a messaging chat transitions from an Inactive session state back to Active?
Currently, we have a trigger that unassigns the messaging ticket and reassigns it to a group. However, when the session becomes Active again, we'd like to notify messaging agents—preferably via the Accept button, Conversation button, or an alert—so that any available agent can accept and continue the chat.
Has anyone found a way to accomplish this? Appreciate any insights! TIA.
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Rich Lorenzo
I was confused by this part:
“When using omnichannel routing without messaging activity routing, the capacity release settings can increase efficiency by automatically releasing an agent's capacity without requiring them to alter the ticket's status.”
It was confusing because “messaging activity routing” is now “Count inactive conversations towards agent capacity” . The linked article explains that, but it took me a while to work this all out. Recommending an update to reflect the current setting name.
On a broader note, many of the settings related to Messaging are not labeled in a way that makes their behavior — or their interaction with other settings — intuitive. This is further complicated by the fact that related configuration is spread across different areas of Admin Center, making it difficult to get a clear, end-to-end understanding of how everything works together.
A prime example: the “Capacity release” setting is located under Messaging Settings while the “Count inactive conversations towards an agent's capacity” is located in the Routing configuration.
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