Table of Contents

1. <a href="#1-opening-a-conversation">Opening a conversation</a>
2. <a href="#2-the-conversation-header">The conversation header</a>
3. <a href="#3-reading-the-message-thread">Reading the message thread</a>
4. <a href="#4-replying-to-a-customer">Replying to a customer</a>
5. <a href="#5-leaving-an-internal-note">Leaving an internal note</a>
6. <a href="#6-accepting-a-new-conversation">Accepting a new conversation</a>
7. <a href="#7-changing-conversation-status">Changing conversation status</a>
8. <a href="#8-assigning-a-conversation">Assigning a conversation</a>
9. <a href="#9-setting-priority">Setting priority</a>
10. <a href="#10-labels-and-tags">Labels and tags</a>
11. <a href="#11-sla-tracking">SLA tracking</a>
12. <a href="#12-customer-details-panel">Customer details panel</a>
13. <a href="#13-canned-messages">Canned messages</a>
14. <a href="#14-attaching-knowledge-base-articles">Attaching knowledge base articles</a>
15. <a href="#15-ai-conversation-summary">AI conversation summary</a>
16. <a href="#16-keyboard-shortcuts">Keyboard shortcuts</a>

1. Opening a conversation

Click any row in the inbox list. The conversation thread opens in the main panel. The customer's details appear in the right sidebar.

If you minimize a conversation (using the compress icon in the header), it collapses to a small floating window so you can keep it accessible while browsing other parts of Alps.

2. The conversation header

The header bar at the top of every conversation shows:

• <strong>Customer name</strong> and <strong>inbox name</strong> below it
• <strong>SLA pill</strong> — a colored countdown (green/yellow/red) showing time remaining on the SLA deadline. Click it to see the breakdown of first-response and resolution SLA targets.
• <strong>Status dropdown</strong> — the current status with a colored indicator. Click to change.
• <strong>Minimize button</strong> — collapses the conversation to a floating window.
• <strong>AI summarize</strong> (sparkles icon) — generates a summary of the entire conversation thread. Opens a dialog where you can copy the summary.
• <strong>Notes button</strong> — opens the Notes drawer. Shows the count of existing notes.
• <strong>Customer details</strong> (person icon) — toggles the right sidebar.
• <strong>More actions</strong> (three-dot menu):

- Delete conversation<br> - Mark as spam<br> - Mark as unread / read<br> - View in external window<br> - Close conversation

3. Reading the message thread

Messages are displayed in chronological order, oldest at the top.

<strong>Message types and how they appear:</strong>

| Type | Appearance |<br>|---|---|<br>| Customer message | Left-aligned, gray bubble, customer name and time above |<br>| Agent reply | Right-aligned, colored bubble, agent name and time below |<br>| Bot/AI message | Purple bubble |<br>| Internal note | Green-bordered box with "Internal Note" label — not visible to customers |<br>| System event | Gray centered pill (e.g. "Conversation assigned to Maria") |

<strong>Date separators</strong> — gray pills with "Today", "Yesterday", or a specific date appear between messages from different days.

<strong>Quoted replies</strong> — when an agent replies to a specific message, a gray strip at the top of the reply shows the quoted content. Click the strip to scroll to the original message in the thread.

<strong>File attachments:</strong>

• Image files show an inline preview that you can click to view full size
• Other files appear as a chip with the filename and size

<strong>Email-specific messages:</strong> Email threads show a header block with To, Cc, Bcc, and Subject fields before the message body.

4. Replying to a customer

The composer is at the bottom of the conversation panel.

<strong>Basic steps:</strong>

1. Click inside the text area ("Type a message...")
2. Type your reply
3. Press <strong>Enter</strong> to send, or <strong>Shift+Enter</strong> to add a new line

<strong>Formatting toolbar:</strong><br>Bold (B), Italic (I), Underline (U), Strikethrough (S), Bullet list, Numbered list

<strong>Replying to a specific message:</strong><br>Hover over any message and click the <strong>reply icon</strong> (curved arrow). A quoted strip appears at the top of the composer showing the message you are replying to. The customer will see this as a threaded reply.

<strong>Attaching files:</strong><br>Click the <strong>paperclip icon</strong> in the composer toolbar. Select any file from your device. A preview appears above the send button. You can attach files alongside a text message or send a file-only message.

<strong>Emoji:</strong><br>Click the <strong>emoji icon</strong> in the toolbar. A grid of common emojis appears. Click any to insert it into your message.

<strong>AI suggested replies:</strong><br>Alps AI may show blue pill buttons above the composer with suggested replies based on the conversation context. Click a suggestion to insert it into the composer, then edit before sending.

<strong>Email conversations</strong> use a separate compose view with To, Cc, Bcc, and Subject fields. The behavior is the same, but replies are sent as emails rather than chat messages.

<strong>Slash command:</strong> Type <code style="font-family:ui-monospace,monospace;background:#f1f5f9;color:#dc2626;padding:0.1em 0.35em;border-radius:3px;font-size:0.875em">/</code> anywhere in the composer to open the canned messages picker. See <a href="#13-canned-messages">Canned Messages</a> below.

5. Leaving an internal note

Internal notes are messages visible only to your team — the customer never sees them. Use them to share context, hand off to a colleague, or document what you've already tried.

<strong>To leave a note:</strong>

1. Click the <strong>Notes button</strong> (pencil icon with count) in the conversation header
2. The Notes drawer slides in from the right
3. Type your note in the input at the bottom
4. Press <strong>Enter</strong> or click <strong>Add note</strong>

<strong>Mentioning a teammate:</strong><br>Type <code style="font-family:ui-monospace,monospace;background:#f1f5f9;color:#dc2626;padding:0.1em 0.35em;border-radius:3px;font-size:0.875em">@</code> followed by their name in a note. Alps autocompletes from your team members. The mentioned person receives a notification and can see the conversation immediately.

<strong>Linking a ticket in a note:</strong><br>Type <code style="font-family:ui-monospace,monospace;background:#f1f5f9;color:#dc2626;padding:0.1em 0.35em;border-radius:3px;font-size:0.875em">/</code> in a note to open the ticket picker. Search by ticket number or subject. The selected ticket is inserted as a styled clickable pill in the note (e.g. <code style="font-family:ui-monospace,monospace;background:#f1f5f9;color:#dc2626;padding:0.1em 0.35em;border-radius:3px;font-size:0.875em">#TKT-045</code>).

<strong>Reacting to notes:</strong><br>Hover over any note and click the <strong>smile icon</strong> to add an emoji reaction. Reactions are stored per conversation.

<strong>Deleting notes:</strong><br>You can delete your own notes by hovering and clicking the <strong>trash icon</strong>. You cannot delete another agent's notes unless you are an admin.

6. Accepting a new conversation

When a new conversation arrives (status: <strong>New</strong>), a green banner appears at the top of the chat:

"New conversation — accept to start replying"

Click <strong>Accept</strong> to move the conversation to <strong>Open</strong> status. This signals to the team that you are handling it and starts the SLA first-response clock.

7. Changing conversation status

Click the <strong>status dropdown</strong> in the conversation header to change the status.

| Status | Meaning | When to use |<br>|---|---|---|<br>| <strong>New</strong> | Just arrived, not yet claimed | Auto-set on arrival; change to Open when you start |<br>| <strong>Open</strong> | Actively being worked on | Set when your team has picked up the conversation |<br>| <strong>Pending</strong> | Waiting for the customer to reply | Set after you've replied and are waiting for their response. SLA clock pauses. |<br>| <strong>Resolved</strong> | Issue is closed | Set when the customer's issue is fully resolved |

<strong>SLA behavior:</strong> The SLA resolution clock pauses when you set a conversation to <strong>Pending</strong>. It resumes when the customer replies or you move it back to Open.

8. Assigning a conversation

Conversations can be assigned to a specific agent so ownership is clear.

<strong>From the customer details sidebar:</strong>

1. Open the right sidebar (person icon)
2. Find the <strong>Assigned</strong> field in the Conversation section
3. Click the dropdown and select an agent

<strong>From automations:</strong> Conversations can be auto-assigned when they arrive based on round-robin, load-balanced, or keyword routing rules. See the <a href="./settings-inboxes.md">Inboxes guide</a> for assignment mode settings.

<strong>Unassigned conversations</strong> appear in the <strong>Unassigned</strong> inbox view and are visible to all agents with access to that inbox.

9. Setting priority

1. Open the right sidebar
2. Find the <strong>Priority</strong> field
3. Select Low, Medium, or High

Priority affects how conversations are sorted when you choose "Sort by priority" and can be used as a condition in automations.

10. Labels and tags

Labels are colored tags that categorize conversations (e.g. "billing", "bug", "feature-request"). You define labels in <strong>Settings > Labels</strong>.

<strong>Adding a label to a conversation:</strong>

1. Open the right sidebar
2. Scroll to the <strong>Tags</strong> section
3. Click <strong>Add tag</strong>
4. Click any existing label to apply it
5. Or type a new tag name and click <strong>Create tag</strong>

<strong>Removing a label:</strong> Click the <strong>X</strong> next to any label pill in the Tags section.

Labels can be used as:

• Filters in the inbox list
• Conditions in automations (e.g. "if label is 'billing', assign to billing team")
• Grouping dimensions in reports

11. SLA tracking

If your workspace has SLA policies configured (Settings > SLA Policy), every conversation in that inbox is tracked against two targets:

• <strong>First response target</strong> — time from conversation arrival to your first reply
• <strong>Resolution target</strong> — time from conversation arrival to resolved status

<strong>The SLA pill in the header</strong> shows a countdown:

• <strong>Green</strong> — plenty of time remaining
• <strong>Yellow</strong> — approaching the deadline
• <strong>Red / Breached</strong> — the deadline has passed

Click the SLA pill to see both targets and their individual countdowns.

<strong>SLA pauses</strong> when a conversation is set to <strong>Pending</strong> (waiting on the customer). The clock resumes when the customer replies or the status changes back to Open.

12. Customer details panel

The right sidebar shows context about the person you are talking to.

<strong>Contact section:</strong>

• Name, email, phone, company, note
• Custom attributes (any extra fields your team tracks via the widget or contact records)

<strong>Conversation section:</strong>

• Status badge, channel badge
• SLA first-response and resolution countdowns
• Priority selector
• Assigned agent selector

<strong>Tags section:</strong>

• Labels applied to the conversation
• Add/remove labels

<strong>Tickets section:</strong>

• List of support tickets linked to this conversation
• <strong>New ticket</strong> button — creates a ticket linked to this conversation

<strong>Browser and device:</strong>

• Browser, operating system, last seen time, page the customer was on when they started the chat

<strong>Recent conversations:</strong>

• Up to 5 other conversations from the same contact, clickable to open

13. Canned messages

Canned messages are saved replies for common questions. They save time and keep responses consistent.

<strong>Using a canned message in a reply:</strong>

1. In the composer, type <code style="font-family:ui-monospace,monospace;background:#f1f5f9;color:#dc2626;padding:0.1em 0.35em;border-radius:3px;font-size:0.875em">/</code>
2. A picker appears showing your saved canned messages
3. Type any part of the name or subject to filter the list
4. Click a canned message to insert it into the composer
5. Edit if needed, then send

You can also click the <strong>grid icon</strong> in the composer toolbar to open the full canned messages drawer and browse by name.

<strong>Creating canned messages:</strong> Go to <strong>Settings > Canned Messages</strong>. See the <a href="./settings-canned-messages.md">Canned Messages guide</a>.

14. Attaching knowledge base articles

You can send a link to a knowledge base article directly from a conversation.

1. Click the <strong>book icon</strong> in the composer toolbar
2. A knowledge base drawer opens on the right
3. Search for an article by title or keyword
4. Click the article to attach it
5. An article preview card appears above the composer
6. Send your message — the customer receives the article link inline

15. AI conversation summary

When a conversation has many messages and you need to get up to speed quickly:

1. Click the <strong>sparkles icon</strong> in the conversation header
2. Alps AI reads the entire thread and generates a summary
3. A dialog opens with the summary text
4. Click <strong>Copy</strong> to paste it elsewhere (e.g. a handoff note)

16. Keyboard shortcuts

| Shortcut | Action |<br>|---|---|<br>| <code style="font-family:ui-monospace,monospace;background:#f1f5f9;color:#dc2626;padding:0.1em 0.35em;border-radius:3px;font-size:0.875em">Enter</code> | Send message |<br>| <code style="font-family:ui-monospace,monospace;background:#f1f5f9;color:#dc2626;padding:0.1em 0.35em;border-radius:3px;font-size:0.875em">Shift+Enter</code> | New line in composer |<br>| <code style="font-family:ui-monospace,monospace;background:#f1f5f9;color:#dc2626;padding:0.1em 0.35em;border-radius:3px;font-size:0.875em">/</code> | Open canned messages picker |<br>| <code style="font-family:ui-monospace,monospace;background:#f1f5f9;color:#dc2626;padding:0.1em 0.35em;border-radius:3px;font-size:0.875em">@</code> | Mention a teammate (in notes) |<br>| <code style="font-family:ui-monospace,monospace;background:#f1f5f9;color:#dc2626;padding:0.1em 0.35em;border-radius:3px;font-size:0.875em">Escape</code> | Close slash picker or shortcut overlay |

<strong>Full keyboard shortcuts menu:</strong> Click the keyboard icon in the bottom-left corner of the app (or look for it in the navigation) to see all available shortcuts.