Overview
The Conversations module's left panel displays an inbox, or list, of all conversations from all channels with search and filter functionality. Each thread, or box, provides at-a-glance information about the specific conversation using formatting and icons.
A Guide to Conversation Inbox Indicators and Markings
Conversation Preview
External Participant's Name | Displays the external participant's name
|
Last Message Preview | Displays a preview of the last message sent or received. The sender's name will also be listed if the last message was sent from an internal user. |
Tags | If the conversation has any tags, those will display as chips. |
Profile Picture |
|
Time Since Last Message | The time since the last message was sent or received is displayed in m (minutes), h (hours), d (days), M (months), or Y (years). |
Formatting + Icons
Text Styling/Icon | Description |
Bolded Name | Unread conversation |
Gray Background | Conversation has at least one participant, or the participant is unknown |
Blue Background | The conversation is currently being viewed |
Red Background | The conversation was flagged with the 'alert' type by content moderation |
Yellow Background | The conversation was flagged with the 'warning' type by content moderation |
| You are the assignee of this conversation |
| The channel is an email |
| The channel is messenger (live chat) |
| The channel is SMS |
| The channel is an in-app call |
| Boltbot participated in the conversation |
| This conversation is private (only the author, participants, and assignee can see it) |
🟢 Green Circle | The external participant is online (appears next to the picture) |
Person/Silhouette
Envelope
Chat Bubble
Mobile Phone
Telephone Receiver
Chatbot
LockSearching Conversations
To search for conversations, click the magnifying glass icon above the inbox.
Filtering Conversations
Filters applied to the conversations inbox remain active even after you navigate away from the page, ensuring a seamless experience when you return.
Preset Filters
By clicking Inbox, you can quickly filter the inbox using preset filters. You can select a filter from the list to display only those conversations:
Inbox: Displays all conversations
Assigned to Me: Displays open and closed conversations assigned to you
Assigned to Me & Open: Displays open conversations assigned to you
Assigned to My Team: Displays open and closed conversations assigned to your primary team
Assigned to My Team & Open: Displays open conversations assigned to your primary team
Participating: Displays open and closed conversations in which you are a participant
Open: Displays conversations that are currently open
Closed: Displays conversations that have been closed
Favorite: Displays conversations you have marked as a favorite
This Week: Displays conversations for the last seven days
No Reply: Displays conversations where the external participant was the last to reply
Phone Calls: Displays phone calls (in-app calling user only)
Chatbot Handoff: Displays conversations where the Chatbot handed the conversation off to your human staff
Chatbot Participated: Displays conversations where the Chatbot participated in the conversation
Advanced Filtering
To see additional filtering options, click on the funnel. This feature will narrow your search even more; you can select from the following filters:
Assigned To
Status
Bolt Assistant (Participation)
Bolt Assistant (Handoff)
With Person
Participation (You)
No reply
No reply is the display of messages where the external participant was the last one to reply. This is often used in combination with the "Status = Open" filter to ensure that only active conversations are included in the results. This way, conversations that have already been closed and where the student had the last word are excluded.
Anonymous
With Tag(s)
Type (channel)
Favorite
Attachments
Privacy
Conversation Flagged
Blocked for External Participant by Moderation
Time
To track active conversations, filter open/closed conversations in your conversation listings.
Bulk Actions - Delete, Close, Favorite/Unfavorite
You can use the checkbox to perform the following bulk actions:
Delete
Close
Add to favorites
Remove from favorites
Once you check the box, you can uncheck the conversations you want to exempt from your bulk action.
Conversation Threading
When messages are grouped together within a single conversation, we refer to it as a thread. It is important to understand how we sync messages.
SMS
By default, to prevent spam, only inbound messages from known senders will be directed to Conversations, creating a new thread. You can, however, enable anonymous conversations by navigating to Conversations Settings > SMS.
SMS messages are grouped into threads based on the phone numbers of the sender and the recipient. This means that if the student's mobile number and your outbound number in Element451 remain the same, all SMS messages exchanged between you and that student will appear as a single conversation, regardless of who from your team is communicating with the student.
If your institution has multiple outbound numbers, messages will be grouped into separate threads based on the outbound number used for each student.
If you have previously communicated with a student, closed the conversation, and the student subsequently sends another text message, that conversation is reopened with the retained conversation history.
Messenger (Live Chat)
When a student reopens an old conversation from the messenger widget, the corresponding thread in your inbox will also be reopened.
If a student has previously used Messenger but starts a new conversation from the messenger widget, it will create a new thread.
If this is the student's first time using Messenger, a new thread will be created.
Visitors using Messenger that have not been associated with a person record in your Element451 instance (Unknown Visitors) will create new threads.
Email conversations are organized into threads based on email address and subject, replicating a typical email inbox.
By default, to prevent spam, only inbound emails from known senders will be directed to Conversations, creating a new thread. You can, however, enable anonymous conversations by navigating to Conversations Settings > Email.
To prevent spam, only inbound messages from known senders will be directed to Conversations, creating a new thread.
WhatsApp messages will be in one continuous thread, similar to SMS.
After 24 hours, conversations are automatically closed.
To reopen a conversation after the 24-hour period has ended, one of the following actions must happen:
You must use a template to send an outbound message
The student must initiate a new conversation
Connecting Shared Email Inboxes + Forwarding
You can connect your individual or shared team email (Google or Outlook) to your Element451 Conversations inbox for centralized message management. This enables all emails sent to your email by an email address associated with a user's record in Element451 to be added to your Inbox.
For more information on connecting group email accounts and setting up email forwarding, click here.