Take, take over and transfer conversations

Take a conversation

The card tells you who has the conversation and what you can do:

• Nobody has taken this conversation yet. Click Take it.
• Fynn is answering this conversation. The card shows the name of your inbox's AI bot. Click Take over from Fynn (with your bot's name). The bot stops answering this conversation.
• Anna is handling this conversation. Click Take over to make it yours.
• Reserved for Anna, next up once they have room. It waits for a teammate who is at their limit. Take over makes it yours instead.
• Transferred to you by Anna. It becomes yours as soon as you have room. Click Take it now to start right away.

The reply box then opens with the cursor in it. A conversation that is already assigned to you, also by round robin, shows the reply box right away.

Taking and taking over need the permission to manage conversations, which the standard Agent role includes. Agents whose role only shows their own conversations cannot take other conversations, but they can use Take it now on a conversation transferred to them.

Write a note without taking it

Click Write a note on the card. The composer opens as a Private Note and the conversation stays with whoever has it. Back returns to the card while the note is still empty. See Private notes for more.

Transfer to a teammate or a team

1. Open the conversation and click Transfer in the header.
2. If your workspace has teams, choose one under Team, or leave it at No team change. The team the conversation is in now is marked (current). Once you pick a team, the list only shows its members, and Anyone in Support (with your team's name) appears at the top.
3. Pick a teammate, or Anyone in Support to give the conversation to the team without choosing a person. The list shows each person's status and how many conversations they hold against their limit, for example 2/5.
4. Optional: write a note under Note (optional), up to 4000 characters. It is saved as a private note, and whoever gets the conversation sees it above their reply box (Transferred by and your name) until they reply or dismiss it.
5. Click Transfer.

A teammate who has room gets the conversation at once. The person who has the conversation can always transfer it, whatever their role. Anyone else needs the permission to manage conversations. If your AI bot was answering the conversation, it stops once you transfer it to a teammate or a team.

Agents whose role only shows their own conversations can transfer their own conversations too. They also get Hand back in the header, which returns the conversation to the default reviewer set in their custom role (or to a person they pick) together with a short internal note.

You can also change the owner under Assigned to in the Details tab of the right panel, see Assigning conversations. A teammate at their limit gets the conversation reserved there too, only without a note. The iPhone and Android app works the same way: it has no Transfer button, but picking a teammate under Assignee in the Details tab runs the same transfer rules, so a teammate at their limit gets the conversation reserved and the line reads Reserved for Anna · next up. For how conversations are handed out automatically, see Auto assignment.

Transfer to a team

After you pick a team under Team, you have two choices:

• Anyone in Support. The conversation goes to the team without a person. Round robin gives it to a member of the team who is Online, has Deskwoot open and has room under their limits. Of those, the one with the fewest open conversations gets it. It never goes back to the person who had it, and never to the agent picked for the inbox's Specific agent mode. The confirmation then reads "Transferred to Support. Ben has it now."
• A teammate in Support. The teammate gets the conversation, or it waits reserved for them when they are at their limit (see below), and the conversation moves into the team. If the teammate already has the conversation, only the team changes.

Round robin only hands out a team conversation when Enable auto assignment is on in the inbox's Collaborators tab with a mode other than Manual, and Assign conversations to team members automatically is on in the team's settings. When either is off, or nobody in the team is online with room, the conversation waits unassigned in the team's folder under Teams and in Unassigned, where your team can take it. The confirmation then reads "Transferred to Support. It waits in the team queue." If your inbox or your teammates have conversation limits, a conversation that nobody in the team has room for waits in the queue instead, and the next team member who gets room gets it.

A note you write with Anyone in Support is for whoever takes the conversation in the team: it shows above their reply box, never above yours.

When the teammate is at their limit

A teammate at their limit shows At limit · next up in the list. If you pick them anyway:

• The conversation is reserved for them and becomes their next conversation as soon as a slot frees up. It counts toward their limit, so round robin does not fill that slot with something else.
• They see it in Mine marked Next up (see Inbox folders). Everyone else sees Reserved: Anna in the list.
• If no slot frees up within 15 minutes, the reservation ends and the conversation goes through auto assignment like any conversation nobody holds: round robin picks someone else, or it waits in the queue or in Unassigned. The person who transferred it gets a notification.

What the customer sees

In a live chat the customer sees "Anna is no longer in the chat", then "You'll be connected with the next team member in a moment", and "Ben is now in the chat" as soon as the next person takes, opens or answers the conversation. After a transfer to a team without a person, the line that Anna left comes when the next person joins. Customers on email and the other channels see none of these lines.

While the customer waits for the next person, your teammates see Customer waits for an agent in the conversation header.

Frequently asked questions

Why can't I see the reply box?

The conversation is not yours yet. Click Take it, Take over or Take it now on the card. A private note is always possible with Write a note.

Can I transfer to a team without picking a person?

Yes. Click Transfer, pick the team under Team and choose Anyone in Support (with your team's name). Round robin gives the conversation to a team member who is online and has room, never back to the person who had it. If nobody can take it right now, it waits in the team's folder and in Unassigned, or in the queue when your team works with limits.

Why did a team transfer not go to anyone?

Round robin only picks a team member when Enable auto assignment is on in the inbox (any mode except Manual), Assign conversations to team members automatically is on for the team, and at least one member other than the person who had the conversation is Online, has Deskwoot open and has room. Members who are Away, Busy or Offline are skipped. Until someone can take it, the conversation waits in the team's folder under Teams.

Who sees the note when I transfer to a team?

Whoever takes the conversation in the team, whether round robin picked them or they took it themselves. It shows above their reply box until they reply or dismiss it. Like every transfer note, it is a private note that the customer never sees.

Does the phone app work the same way?

Not quite. In the phone app the reply box is always there. An unassigned conversation shows Take it above it, a colleague's conversation shows Take over, and your first reply to a conversation that nobody has taken makes it yours. There is no Transfer button and no transfer note, so a transfer to Anyone in a team needs the web dashboard. To hand a conversation to a teammate, pick them under Assignee in the Details tab: the same rules apply, so a teammate at their limit gets it reserved. See The Deskwoot app for iPhone and Android.

Does the customer see my transfer note?

No. The note is saved as a private note, which only your team sees.

What if my teammate is away or offline?

The dialog tells you, for example "Anna is away right now. The conversation still goes to them." It does go to Anna. But if the customer writes again while Anna is still Away or Offline, or Deskwoot has not been open on any of her devices for 5 minutes, the conversation moves on to a teammate who is online (or waits until someone can take it), with a private note that says who had it. Busy alone does not hand anything on. Pick someone who is online if the customer should get an answer soon. See Auto assignment and round robin.

What happens after 15 minutes when nobody had room?

The reservation ends and the conversation goes to round robin, or waits in the queue or in Unassigned when nobody else can take it. It never goes straight back to the person who had it before the transfer. Whoever transferred it gets the notification "Anna had no free slot, #1234 went to the queue".

Can I still open a conversation after I transferred it?

Only if you see every conversation: administrators and, on Enterprise, agents who may see other agents' conversations (Teammates). The reply box turns back into the card, and a private note is still possible. Other agents no longer see the conversation once it went to the teammate, unless someone @mentions them in it.

Where do I see conversations that were transferred to me?

In your Mine folder and in the notification bell: "Anna transferred #1234 to you", with "Next up once you have room" when it waits for you, and the note below it. When a reserved conversation becomes yours, the bell says "A transferred conversation is now yours · #1234".

Does the customer see "is no longer in the chat" every time?

Only in a live chat, and only when they had already seen the first agent join or reply. A chat that round robin gave to someone who never opened it simply waits for the next person.