Understanding the end-user experience with multi-conversations for messaging

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Multi-conversations let your end users conduct multiple messaging conversations simultaneously in your Web Widget or mobile app, providing faster resolutions to their support issues and a more satisfying customer experience.

When you activate multi-conversations, your AI agent behavior runs when an end user starts a new conversation. Multi-conversations significantly impact how end users interact with your Web Widget and mobile channels.

See Allowing multiple conversations for your end users for information on activating this feature.

See Configuring multi-conversations for developer information about this feature.

This article includes the following sections:

• Changes to the Web Widget experience with multi-conversations
• Changes to the mobile experience with multi-conversations

Changes to the Web Widget experience with multi-conversations

If you offer messaging support through the Web Widget, your end users will see several changes when you turn on multi-conversations, including:

• Conversations list
• Conversations
• Launcher button
• Proactive Messages

Conversations list

When the end user clicks the launcher button, the Web Widget displays a list of the end user’s existing conversations. Conversations are listed in descending order based on the time of the latest message in each conversation. End users can click a conversation to open it in the Web Widget.

Each conversation in the list includes the following information:

• Title of the conversation.
• Avatar for the agent who sent the latest message in the conversation. Your AI agent avatar is displayed if an agent hasn’t responded to the conversation. The default agent image is displayed if the agent doesn’t have an avatar.
• Beginning of the latest message in the conversation. The agent’s username precedes the message if the agent submitted the most recent comment, or “You” if the end user submitted the most recent comment. The content of the message appears in bold if the end user has not read the latest message.
• Timestamp of the latest message in the conversation.
• Badge counter for unread messages.

  New conversation button. Clicking this button navigates the end user to the conversation screen and creates a new conversation. The button doesn’t appear if you have removed the New conversation button. In this case end users can’t create a new, separate conversation but can continue to raise support issues in any pre-existing conversation.

Conversations

When the end user is viewing a conversation, the Web Widget frame includes the following features:

• The conversation title, by default the start date/time of the conversation.
• The avatar of the agent who sent the most recent message in the conversation
• A back button to return to the list of conversations.

Use the SunCo API to manage conversation titles and visual elements.

Launcher button

When the end user clicks the launcher button to open the Web Widget, its behavior depends on their pre-existing conversations, and whether the tickets associated with those conversations are active or inactive.

• If there are no pre-existing conversations, a new conversation opens on the Conversation screen.

  If there are one or more active conversations, the most recently-updated conversation opens on the conversation screen. The end user can use the back button to navigate to the Conversation list screen.

• If all pre-existing conversations are inactive, the conversation list screen opens allowing the end user to select the conversation they want to revisit or start a new conversation by tapping the New conversation button.

Note: If you have removed the New conversation button, end users with only one conversation will always navigate to the Conversation screen, where their conversation is displayed.

Proactive Messages

When you turn on multi-conversations, proactive messages sent to end users create new conversations rather than being appended to an existing conversation.

If you remove the New conversation button, your proactive messages will stop creating new conversations. Instead, subsequent proactive messages are appended to the latest updated conversation.

Changes to the mobile experience with multi-conversations

If you offer messaging support through your mobile app, your end users will see several changes when you turn on multi-conversations, including:

• Conversation list
• Conversation
• Launcher button
• Push notifications

Conversation list

This screen displays a list of the end user’s conversations. All conversations appear in the list, regardless of ticket or messaging session status. Conversations are listed in descending order based on the time of the latest message in each conversation.

Each conversation in the list includes the following information:

• Title of the conversation.
• Profile picture of the agent who sent the latest message in the conversation. Your AI agent avatar is displayed if an agent hasn’t responded to the conversation. The default agent image is displayed if the agent doesn’t have a profile picture.
• Beginning of the latest message in the conversation. The agent’s username precedes the message if the agent submitted the most recent comment, or “You” if the end user submitted the most recent comment. The content of the message appears in bold if the end user has not read the latest message.
• Timestamp of the latest message in the conversation.
• Badge counter for unread messages.
• New conversation button. Tapping this button navigates the end user to the conversations screen and creates a new conversation. The button doesn’t appear if you have removed the New conversation button. In this case, end users can’t create a new, separate conversation but can continue to raise support issues in any pre-existing conversation.

Conversation

When you turn on multi-conversations, the header on the conversation screen includes the following features:

• The conversation title, by default the start date/time of the conversation.
• The profile picture for the agent who sent the most recent message in the conversation.

  A back button that navigates to the previous screen.

See Customizing and configuring the Zendesk mobile SDKs for information on setting these features.

Use the SunCo API to manage conversation titles and visual elements.

Launcher button

When the end user taps the launcher button to open the widget, its behavior depends on whether there are pre-existing conversations, and whether those conversations are active or inactive.

• If there are no pre-existing conversations, a new conversation opens on the Conversation screen.

  If there are one or more active conversations, the most recently-updated conversation opens on the conversation screen. The end user can use the back button to navigate to the Conversation list screen.

• If all pre-existing conversations are inactive, the conversation list screen opens, allowing the end user to select the conversation they want to revisit or start a new conversation by tapping the New conversation button.

If you have removed the New conversation button, end users with only one conversation will always navigate to the Conversation screen, where their conversation is displayed.

Push notifications

When a new message is added to a conversation, the user receives a push notification on their mobile device. Tapping the notification takes them to the Conversation screen, with the updated conversation open.

Notifications can be received when the end user:

• Is viewing another conversation in the app.
• Is viewing another screen in the app.
• Is not currently in the app (depending on how their notifications are configured.

However, new message notifications aren’t displayed if the end user is viewing the Conversation list. Instead, the newly updated conversation moves to the top of the list, and the new message is highlighted.