The Conversations inbox is where your team handles every customer message, no matter which channel it arrived on. The list sits on the left, the open conversation in the middle, and the details panel on the right.
Watch the walkthrough
The list on the left
Click Conversations in the sidebar to open the full list. Under it, the sidebar keeps your saved Folders and one entry per Team, Channel and Label. See Conversation folders explained.
At the top of the list, switch between Mine, Unassigned and All to focus on the right queue. The row below narrows it further: keep All, pick Unread to see only conversations with customer messages you have not read yet, Unattended for chats still waiting for your team’s first reply, or Mentions for chats where a teammate mentioned you. Unattended and Mentions appear on the full list; a list opened for one channel, label or team shows All and Unread.
A reply you send from the connected app can mark a chat read too; see Marking chats read when you reply from the app. On a WhatsApp inbox connected by QR code, the same row also offers Personal and Groups; see WhatsApp group chats.
The chip next to the title shows which status you are looking at (All by default). The list remembers your last-used tabs the next time you come back, and the conversation you have open stays in the list until you move on.
Who sent the last message
Each conversation in the list shows the start of its last message, with who sent it in front.
| Label | Who sent it |
|---|---|
| You: | You |
| WhatsApp sync:, Instagram sync:, Facebook sync: or TikTok sync: | Someone on your team, typing in the connected phone app or Facebook Page inbox; the app does not say who |
| A teammate’s name, such as Aisyah: | That teammate |
| Your AI agent’s name, such as Maxkoh Bot: | Your flow agent |
| Sequence: | A follow-up message sequence or a booking reminder |
| Broadcast: | A blast |
| Automation: | An automation rule, an automatic reply to a comment, or another automatic message |
| Note: with a notepad icon | A private note, seen only by your team |
Customer messages have no label. Private notes carry the same notepad icon inside the conversation and in search results.
Phone numbers beside names
Each conversation in the list shows the customer’s phone number in grey after their name, written with the country code, such as Aisyah Rahman (+60 12 333 4455). The wide list view shows it the same way.
- A contact with no phone number shows the name only.
- A contact with no name, or whose name is just their number, shows the number once.
- When the row is too narrow for both, the name is shortened with “…” so the number always stays whole. Open the chat to read the full name.
Finding a conversation: filter, sort and layout
The three icons beside the status picker are:
- Filter conversations: build a condition such as Labels Has any of VIP, then Apply filters. A Save icon appears so you can keep the filter as a folder. See Filter conditions and operators.
- Sort conversations: opens a small panel with Status (Open, Pending, Snoozed, Resolved, Spam or All) and Order by: Last activity newest or oldest first, Created at newest or oldest, Priority highest or lowest, Pending Response longest or shortest waiting, Priority highest then oldest, or Unread Count highest first.
- Switch the layout: gives the open conversation the full width and hides the list; click again to bring the list back.
Right-click a conversation
Most things you do in the header you can also do from the list without opening the chat. Right-click a conversation for Mark as read or Mark as unread, Pin conversation, Mark as resolved, Mark as pending, Mark as spam, Snooze, Priority, Assign label, Assign agent, Assign team, Open in new tab and Copy conversation link. Administrators also see Delete conversation.
Working on several conversations at once
Hover over a conversation and tick the box that appears on its avatar. Do the same on the others, and a bar appears at the bottom of the list showing {n} selected. Its icons let you Assign labels or Remove labels, Change status to resolve, mark pending or Snooze, and Assign agent or Assign team for all of them in one go. Clear drops the selection. Only the conversations visible on the current page are selected, and the open conversation stays hidden until you clear the selection.
Pinning a conversation
To keep a conversation in view, right-click it and choose Pin conversation. Pinned conversations sit at the top of the list for everyone in your account, up to three at a time. See Pinning conversations.
The conversation header
Above the thread you see the customer’s name, which inbox the chat belongs to, and, when it applies, Snoozed until with the time, a reply-time pill, the lead temperature badge, and a flow agent badge with Resume flow agent when an AI agent is paused on the chat. On the right are Resolve (with Mark as pending and Snooze under its arrow), the call button on inboxes with calling, and the More actions menu with Block Contact, Pin conversation, history sharing and Send Transcript. The full list is in Everything you can do in a conversation.
On an Official WhatsApp API or Normal WhatsApp Web Link inbox the same line also shows the number the inbox sends from, after the inbox name, so you can tell at a glance which number a chat is on when you run several. A Normal WhatsApp Web Link inbox shows it once the phone has connected.
The details panel
Click the person icon at the right edge of the thread to open the Contact panel. It shows everything about the customer: contact details, assignment and priority, labels, attributes, past conversations, macros, notes, attachments, and any upcoming appointment (who it is with, when, their phone number and the video meeting link), so whoever picks up the chat has the full picture. See The details panel beside a conversation.
If a customer edits a WhatsApp message they sent, the conversation updates to match, so you are always reading what they actually said.