# Starting a conversation with someone new

Sometimes you need to message a person who has never written to you: a lead who called, a customer who left an email address on a form. Search for them first. If nobody matches, the search page offers to create the contact and open a conversation with them in one go.

## From the search page

1. Click the **Search** box at the top of the sidebar and type the person's phone number, email address or name.
2. When no contact matches, click **Create contact & start conversation** under the **No results found** message. On the **All results** tab the button also appears inside the **Contacts** box whenever only conversations or messages matched what you typed.

![The search page with no results and the Create contact & start conversation button](../../.gitbook/assets/guides/search-create-contact-button.jpg)

3. The contact form opens already filled in from your search:
   * a phone number goes into the phone field with its country code — a local number such as 012-345 6789 becomes +60 12 345 6789;
   * an email address goes into the email field;
   * anything else becomes the name.

   Check the details and add whatever is missing. **Save contact** stays greyed out until the contact has a phone number or an email address, so there is always a way to reach them.

![The contact form pre-filled with the searched phone number](../../.gitbook/assets/guides/search-create-contact-dialog.jpg)

4. Click **Save contact**. If only one of your inboxes can reach this person, the conversation opens straight away. If several can, pick one from the **Start the conversation via** list.

![Choosing the inbox to start the conversation from](../../.gitbook/assets/guides/search-pick-inbox.jpg)

5. You land in the new conversation, assigned to you and ready for your first message.

## Which inboxes are offered

An inbox is offered when it can reach the contact: WhatsApp inboxes for a contact with a phone number, email inboxes for a contact with an email address. You only see the inboxes you have access to.

## Your first message

The conversation starts empty, so the usual rules for writing first apply. On WhatsApp the customer has not messaged you yet, so your first message is an approved template — pick one from the reply box. See [WhatsApp template library](/settings/whatsapp-template-library). Email conversations open with the normal reply box.

## If the number or email already belongs to a contact

Search finds contacts even when a number is typed differently, so you will rarely reach this point. If you do save a phone number or email address that already belongs to someone, no duplicate is created: a short notice tells you whose it is, and the conversation starts with that existing contact.

## Related

* [Managing Conversations](/conversations/managing-conversations)
* [Creating and importing contacts](/contacts/creating-and-importing-contacts)
* [Replying and adding private notes](/conversations/replying-and-private-notes)
* [Searching, filtering and segments](/contacts/searching-filtering-and-segments)

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Source: https://help.mampuai.com/conversations/starting-a-conversation-from-search