# Assign, route to a team, add collaborators

Decide who owns a conversation, which team it belongs to, and who else should see it and get its notifications.

## Quick start

1. Open **Inbox** and click a conversation. An owner, admin or agent can change ownership.
2. Click **Assign to me** in the header to take it, or pick a teammate from the assignee picker.
3. Pick a team in the team dropdown (**No team** until set) when the whole team should see it.
4. Open **Collaborators** and add one more person. None of this sends the customer anything.
5. Tell the person yourself: assigning notifies nobody, and adding a collaborator does.

## Watch out

- Assigning notifies nobody. If somebody must be told now, tell them, or add them as a collaborator.
- Assignment does not check channel access, so a teammate can be given a chat they cannot open.

![The header's Assigned to you picker, Collaborators, and the team dropdown set to Customer Support.](https://inchat.inseller.my/help/inbox/assign-route-and-collaborate-1.webp)

![Collaborators open, ready to pull a teammate into the conversation without reassigning it.](https://inchat.inseller.my/help/inbox/assign-route-and-collaborate-2.webp)

![The assignee picker open: Assign to me, then teammate Mei Lin below it.](https://inchat.inseller.my/help/inbox/assign-route-and-collaborate-3.webp)

## 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

| Field | What it means | Default | Limits |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Assign to me | Makes you the assignee in one click. | — | — |
| Assignee picker | **Unassigned**, or one named teammate. | — | Only members of this workspace. |
| Route to team | **No team**, or one of the workspace's teams. Independent of the assignee. | No team | — |
| AI agent | **Auto (routing rules)**, or one named AI agent for this conversation. | Auto (routing rules) | 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. | — | 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](https://inchat.inseller.my/help/inbox/take-over-from-the-ai)
- [Close, reopen, snooze, pin and mute a conversation](https://inchat.inseller.my/help/inbox/close-reopen-and-snooze)
- [Find the conversation you need](https://inchat.inseller.my/help/inbox/find-a-conversation)
- [Act on many conversations at once](https://inchat.inseller.my/help/inbox/bulk-actions-in-the-inbox)
- [Run a workflow on this conversation](https://inchat.inseller.my/help/inbox/run-a-workflow-on-a-conversation)
- [Escalate](https://inchat.inseller.my/help/workflows/escalate)

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Source files: `src/components/inbox/ThreadHeader.tsx`, `src/components/inbox/ThreadCollaborators.tsx`, `src/components/inbox/ConversationRowMenu.tsx`, `src/lib/inbox/row-actions.ts`, `src/lib/inbox/conversation-collaborators.ts`, `src/app/(app)/inbox/[id]/conversation-actions.ts`, `src/lib/push/notify.ts`, `src/lib/workflows/exit-conditions.ts`, `src/components/workflows/WorkflowTriggerConfigDrawer.tsx`, `src/components/inbox/views.ts`, `src/lib/i18n/messages/inbox-thread.ts`, `mobile/src/app/inbox/[id].tsx`, `mobile/src/components/inbox/thread-menu-pages.tsx`, `mobile/src/lib/i18n/en.ts`