Assign, route to a team, add collaborators

Getting here

Inbox → open a conversation → the header carries Assign to me or the assignee picker, the team dropdown, the AI agent picker and Collaborators. A list row's Conversation actions menu has Assign to and Collaborators too. In the app: the same controls in the conversation header, and a long press on a row for Assign user and Collaborators.

Before you start

• An owner, admin or agent can change who owns a conversation. A viewer cannot, and is offered only the personal actions — pin, mute and View contact details.
• The person you assign has to be a member of this workspace. A name from anywhere else is refused.
• The team dropdown needs at least one team; Collaborators needs at least one other member who can reply.

Fields

Assign to me

Makes you the assignee in one click.

Assignee picker

Unassigned, or one named teammate.

Limits: Only members of this workspace.

Route to team

No team, or one of the workspace's teams. Independent of the assignee.

Default: No team

AI agent

Auto (routing rules), or one named AI agent for this conversation.

Default: Auto (routing rules)

Limits: Does not change who holds the conversation — that is the owner control at the top.

Collaborators

Teammates pulled into this conversation without taking it from its assignee.

Limits: Only members who can reply. The assignee is not offered; they already have it.

How it works

• Assigning writes the owner onto the conversation. The row then reads Assigned to you or Assigned to {name}, and the chat appears under Mine for that person.
• A line is added to the conversation — {name} took the conversation, {name} assigned the conversation to {name} or {name} unassigned the conversation — so the history shows how it got there.
• Unassign clears the owner and sends the chat back to Unassigned. Nothing else about it changes.
• Assigning somebody does not notify them. Whether a later customer message reaches them depends on their own notification setting, their availability, and whether they muted the chat.
• Route to team is a separate label from the assignee: a conversation can belong to a team and to nobody in particular, or to a person and no team.
• Routing to a team does not pick an individual inside it. Somebody still has to take the chat.
• The AI agent picker decides which AI agent handles this one conversation. Auto (routing rules) puts it back to the ordinary rules from the next customer message on.
• Picking a named AI agent does not take a conversation from a person who took it over. It does end a workflow's pause and the wait after a person's reply, so on a conversation the AI owns, the AI may answer the waiting message at once. Auto (routing rules) changes neither.
• Collaborators pulls a teammate in: Collaborators see this thread and get its notifications; the assignee keeps it.
• A collaborator finds the chat again under the Collaborating view, and gets a notification in the product when they are added.
• Only members who can reply are offered as collaborators, and the assignee is left out of the list because they already have it.
• Anybody who can change the conversation can remove a collaborator, and a collaborator can always remove themselves.
• A teammate whose notifications are set to assigned-only still gets this conversation's notifications while they are a collaborator.
• Assigning by hand ends any running workflow whose trigger has When a user is manually assigned ticked under Set exit conditions. Every other running workflow carries on.

When it fails

• Assign failed with Could not change the assignee. — the owner did not change. The chat keeps whoever it had.
• That teammate isn’t a member of this workspace. — the person you picked has left, or was never in this workspace.
• Team not updated with Could not change the team. — the team did not change.
• AI agent not updated with Could not change the AI agent. — the conversation keeps the agent it had.
• You don’t have permission to change this conversation. — you are a viewer, or not a member of this workspace.
• Could not add collaborator and Could not remove collaborator — the collaborator list is unchanged.
• Nobody else can reply in this workspace. — there is no one to add: everybody else is a viewer, or you are the only member.
• In the app, Team routing isn’t enabled on this workspace yet. means the workspace has no teams to route to.
• That action could not be completed. is the row menu's general failure. Nothing was changed.

Limits

• Assigning sends the customer nothing. They see no change at all.
• Assigning does not close, snooze or tag the conversation.
• Assigning does not stop the AI. While the AI holds the conversation, it may still answer, even after you assign it to someone.
• There is no assigned-to-you notification. Nothing is pushed at the moment a conversation is assigned.
• Routing to a team is a label, not a shared turn list: it does not hand the chat to a member of that team.
• A collaborator is not a second assignee. The chat stays under the assignee's Mine, and it stays in their name everywhere.
• Assignment does not check channel access. A teammate whose access does not cover this channel can be given a conversation they cannot open.

Best practices

• Assign before you escalate. A conversation somebody owns is a conversation somebody answers.
• Use Route to team for the shape of the work — sales, support — and the assignee for the person doing it.
• Add a note saying why you assigned it. The next person should not have to ask the customer again.
• Use Collaborators rather than reassigning when you only want a second opinion; the owner stays clear.
• Keep Unassigned at zero at the end of the day. It is the queue nobody is watching.

Use cases

• A payment question arrives: Assign to me, answer, and add a note with the order number.
• Sarah Chen asks for someone who speaks Malay: assign the teammate who does, and add a note saying why.
• A complicated refund: route it to the support team so the whole team sees it in Team Inbox.
• You are going off shift: unassign what you have not finished, so it goes back to the shared queue.
• Michael Torres asks a technical question: keep it, and add the teammate who knows the answer as a collaborator.

FAQ and troubleshooting

Does the customer know I assigned the conversation to someone?

No. Assignment is internal. Nothing is sent to the customer.

Does the teammate get a notification when I assign them a conversation?

Not for the assignment itself — nothing is pushed at that moment. The chat appears under their Mine. If somebody has to be told now, tell them, or add them as a collaborator, which does notify.

What is the difference between assigning and routing to a team?

Assigning names one person, who then sees it under Mine. Routing names a team, which files it under Team Inbox without choosing anybody inside it.

What does a collaborator see?

The whole conversation, and its notifications. They can reply. The chat stays in the assignee's name and appears for the collaborator under Collaborating.

Does picking an AI agent take the conversation away from me?

Not if you took it over. A named agent does end a workflow's pause and the wait after a person's reply, so on a conversation the AI owns, the AI may answer the waiting message at once.

I assigned a conversation and the teammate says they cannot open it.

Assignment does not check channel access. If their access does not include that channel they will not see it — assign somebody whose access does, or have an admin widen theirs.

Related

• Take over from the AI, and hand it back — The badge at the top says who is answering right now, and one button moves the conversation between the AI and a person.
• Close, reopen, snooze, pin and mute a conversation — Clear a chat out of your working views without losing it, park it until later, or keep it on top of the list.
• Find the conversation you need — Views, search, the channel filter and the Unreplied switch narrow the inbox down to the chats you still have to answer.
• Act on many conversations at once — Tick several conversations and close, reopen, tag, assign or mark them unread in one go.
• Run a workflow on this conversation — Start a published workflow on this customer, see which flows are running, stop one, or answer a question a flow awaits.
• Escalate — Pause the AI on this thread and alert a person — the safety net when the AI could not, or should not, finish a path alone.