Everything you need while answering a message sits in one column to the side of it: who else is watching, what
has been sent, what this person asked last time, and who they are.

## Opening it

The **person icon** in the conversation header, beside **Resolve** — or `Alt`+`O`. The panel starts closed, and
once you open it, it stays open on every conversation until you close it again. On a narrow screen, clicking
anywhere outside it closes it.

Each block inside is an accordion: click the title to open or close it, and it remembers that too. **Drag a
block by its handle to reorder the column.** The order is yours alone and follows you between conversations.

## What is in the column

The contact block sits at the top and cannot be moved or collapsed. Under it, in the order they arrive in:

| Block | What it holds |
|---|---|
| **Conversation Actions** | assignee, team, priority, conversation labels — see [assign and prioritise](assign-and-prioritise) and [labels](labels) |
| **Support cases** | the cases linked to this conversation, and a button to open a new one. Only when the module is on for your account — see [support cases](support-cases) |
| **Commerce** | this customer's orders, when a store is connected — see [commerce](commerce-overview) |
| **Macros** | the macros you can run on this conversation — see [macros](macros) |
| **Conversation Information** | how this conversation started: when, from which page, which browser and platform. Mostly empty off the website widget |
| **Contact Attributes** | your own fields on the person — see [custom attributes](custom-attributes) |
| **Contact Notes** | notes about the *person*, kept across all their conversations |
| **Attachments** | everything sent in this conversation |
| **Previous Conversations** | this person's other conversations |
| **Conversation participants** | who is watching this one |
| **Linked Linear Issues** | only when Linear is connected — see [integrations](integrations) |

## Conversation participants

A participant is somebody who follows a conversation without owning it. It is the panel to use when you want a
colleague to see what happens next but you do not want to hand them the work.

Being a participant does three things:

- **you are notified of every new message** on that conversation, assigned to you or not;
- **it appears in your Participating view** in the sidebar (see [work in the inbox](work-in-the-inbox));
- **you keep access to it**, even under a custom role that would otherwise not show it to you.

The panel reads *N people are participating* with their avatars, or *No one is participating!*

- **To join yourself**, use **Join conversation**. It changes to *You are participating*.
- **To add somebody**, use the settings icon at the top right of the panel and pick them from the list.
- **To remove somebody**, open the same list and click them again. There is no separate leave button — take
  yourself out the same way.

You can only add an agent who is a member of that channel, which is the same rule assignment follows.

**Mentioning a colleague in a private note makes them a participant automatically.** That is usually how people
end up watching a conversation, rather than this panel.

## Attachments

Everything sent in this conversation, in two groups.

**Media** — images, video and voice notes — is a grid, newest first, showing the first six with a **+N** tile
that opens the rest. Hover a tile for the time it was sent and a download button; a video also shows its length.

**Files** — PDFs and everything else — is a list showing the first three, with **View all** underneath. Clicking
one opens it in a new tab; the download button beside it saves it.

Clicking a media tile opens the **gallery**: the picture full screen, who sent it and when, and controls to
zoom, rotate and download. The left and right arrow keys move through the conversation's media without leaving
the gallery, and `Escape` closes it.

**This panel is one conversation only.** For everything a contact has ever sent, open their record and use the
**Media** tab, which also offers **Jump to message** on each item. The panel here does not.

## Previous Conversations

Every other conversation this contact has had, each as a card you can read at a glance. Click one to go to it,
or hold `Cmd`/`Ctrl` while clicking to open it in a new tab.

Right-clicking a card here gives you **Open in new tab** and **Copy conversation link** only. The full menu
belongs to the conversation list.

The block disappears when the conversation list is already filtered to this contact — which is what the history
button in the contact block does — because the list beside you is then showing the same thing.

## The contact block

At the top of the column: avatar, name, and the details the product has on this person — email, phone, company,
location and social profiles. Each row has a copy button.

- **Click the name, or the pencil beside it, to rename the person in place.** `Enter` saves, `Escape` cancels.
- The **information icon** shows when the contact was first created.
- The **external-link icon** opens the full contact record in a new tab.

Under the details is a row of buttons: **New message**, **View all conversations** (only when there is more
than one), **Call**, **Edit contact**, **Merge contact**, and **Delete contact**, which only an administrator
sees.

**View all conversations** is not a link to a page. It filters the conversation list beside you down to this
person, newest first, and leaves it filtered until you clear it.

## The conversation card menu

Right-click any card in the conversation list. This is the fastest way to act on a conversation without opening
it, and most of it works on conversations you are not assigned.

| Item | What to know |
|---|---|
| **Mark as unread** / **Mark as read** | only the one that applies is shown |
| **Mark as resolved**, **Reopen conversation**, **Mark as pending** | the status it is already in is not offered |
| **Snooze** | only on an open conversation; it opens the snooze menu |
| **Priority** | a submenu; the value it already has is not offered |
| **Assign label** | a searchable submenu, labels already on the conversation listed first. Clicking one of those **removes** it |
| **Assign agent** | the channel's agents, online ones first, plus **None** to clear |
| **Assign team** | every team in the account |
| **Open in new tab**, **Copy conversation link** | the link is the full address, ready to paste |
| **Delete conversation** | **administrators only** |

**Mark as unread takes you out of the conversation.** It sets the conversation back to unread from the
customer's last message and returns you to the list — so use it to park something you have read but cannot deal
with yet, not as a bookmark you intend to stay on.

## The message menu

Right-click any message bubble.

| Item | When it is there |
|---|---|
| **Reply to this message** | on WhatsApp, the website widget, Telegram, TikTok and the API channel. Email, SMS, Facebook, Instagram and LINE cannot point at one message |
| **Copy** | when the message has text |
| **Translate** | when the message has text and the Google Translate integration is connected |
| **Copy link to the message** | almost always — it is a link straight to that message in the conversation |
| **Add to canned responses** | **only on a message you sent** — see [canned responses](canned-responses) |
| **Delete** | on a message with text or an attachment |

**Translate replaces the bubble's text in place**, in your own dashboard language, with a **See original**
toggle. The customer sees nothing; the translation is for you.

**Delete asks you to confirm and cannot be undone.** The text is replaced with *This message was deleted* and
any attachment on it is destroyed. It does not unsend anything — the customer already received what was sent.

Two things stop the menu appearing. **Right-clicking while text is selected does nothing**, so you can still
select a phrase and copy it by hand. Right-clicking a link or an image gives you the browser's own menu
instead.

## Who can do this

Any **agent** can use every panel and both menus on a conversation they can see. **Deleting a conversation and
deleting a contact are administrator actions**; nobody else is shown the item. See
[roles and permissions](roles-and-permissions).

## Limits

- **The Attachments panel shows this conversation only**, and has no Jump to message.
- **Participants are not an assignment.** A participant gets notifications; they do not own the conversation and
  nothing routes work to them.
- **The panel order is personal.** You cannot set a column layout for the team.
- **Two blocks are absent rather than empty** when the capability is off for your account — Support cases,
  Commerce and Linked Linear Issues simply are not there.
- **Priority cannot be set in bulk**, even though the card menu sets it one at a time.

## Related

- [Work in the inbox](work-in-the-inbox)
- [Assign and prioritise](assign-and-prioritise)
- [Labels](labels)
- [Canned responses](canned-responses)
- [The life of a support case](the-life-of-a-support-case)

## If it does not work

**The sidebar is not there at all.** It is closed. Press `Alt`+`O`, or use the person icon in the conversation
header.

**A block I expect is missing.** Either it is collapsed further down the column than you remember — scroll — or
it is one of the three that only appear when the capability is on for the account.

**Translate does nothing.** The Google Translate integration is not connected. An administrator connects it
under Settings → Integrations; see [integrations](integrations).

**I cannot find a colleague in the participants list.** They are not a member of that channel. An administrator
adds them in the channel's settings.

**Previous Conversations vanished.** You pressed the history button in the contact block, so the conversation
list itself is now filtered to this contact. Clear the filter and the block comes back.

**Right-clicking a message opens the browser menu.** You right-clicked a link or an image. Aim at the bubble
instead.