Inbox Settings and Auto-Close
Closing a conversation is at the agent’s discretion, and sending a response does not close a conversation. Conversations where your team has responded but the customer has not returned…
On this page
Closing a conversation is at the agent’s discretion, and sending a reply does not close a conversation. To prevent the Inbox from accumulating a growing pile of conversations where your team has responded but the customer hasn’t returned, you can enable an auto-close rule in the Inbox settings. This article explains how to enable the rule and exactly which conversations it closes.
- Inbox SettingsTurn on Auto-Close
- Live Chat SettingsLive Chat Timeouts
- InboxClosed conversations can be found in the "Closed" section
Accessing the page
Click the Settings icon in the left menu, then select the Inbox entry from the Settings folder in the panel that opens (Settings › Settings › Inbox). This page is part of the administration area; administrator privileges are required to access it.
There are two cards on the page: "Automatically Close Calls" and "Live Chat Has Its Own Timeouts."
Enabling Auto-Shutdown
- Enable the switch — Enable the switch on the “Automatically Close Calls” card. Enter 48 in the box in the rule statement as the recommended duration.
- Set the time limit — Enter the time in hours in the box next to the sentence “If the customer hasn’t responded in … hours, end the call.” The minimum is 1 hour.
- Save — Click the "Save Changes" button in the upper-right corner of the page. The button becomes active only when you have made a change.
To disable the rule, turn off the switch and save again. The rule will be disabled when you start a new workspace.
Which calls are ended
This rule applies only to conversations where the customer is "next in line." All of the following conditions must be met for a conversation to close:
- At least one member of your team, a representative, or BLE AI must have sent at least one message in the conversation.
- The last message must have come from your team; the customer must not have written anything after that message.
- The time you set since your team's last message must have elapsed.
- The call must be active or on hold. Do not touch closed, locked, or spam calls.
- The call should not be postponed. Postponed calls are not closed until the postponement period ends.
If the last message comes from the customer, the conversation will never close automatically: it’s still your turn. Internal notes, tags, assignments, or status changes do not count as a response; they neither start nor reset the counter.
How it works
- The session is checked every 15 minutes; that is, the session closes no later than 15 minutes after the call time expires.
- A closed conversation is returned to the default closed state in your workspace and moves to the Closed section. The conversation is not deleted.
- The line "Automatically closed — no response for … hours" is added to the call log; it is unclear who made the decision and what the threshold was.
- When a customer replies to the same conversation, the conversation reopens.
- Calls that end automatically are not counted among the calls resolved by BLE AI.
- When you first enable the rule, old conversations that meet the conditions will also be closed. If there are a large number of them, the closing process proceeds in batches of up to 200 conversations per check.
Example
You set the timeframe to 48 hours. Your representative responded to the customer on Monday at 10:00 a.m. If the customer does not respond, the case will be closed during the first review after 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday. If the customer writes on Tuesday, the queue passes to you and the timer pauses; when your representative responds again, the timer restarts from that point.
Live chat timeouts
In the live chat on your website, inactive chats are marked as inactive and archived in minutes, not hours. This rule is not on this page but in the live chat settings; the "Live Chat Timeouts" link on the card will take you there. For details, see the article on adding live chat to your website.
Manual shutdown
Agents can close a call at any time using the status button on the top bar. There is no status selector in the reply box; typing a reply to a closed or on-hold call will reopen it. Details: Assigning, closing, and postponing calls.
Frequently Asked Questions
The rule is clear, but a call hasn’t ended. Why?
Most common reasons: the last message was sent by the customer; your team hasn’t sent any messages in the conversation (only a note was left); the conversation has been postponed or is locked. Also, make sure you’ve enabled the setting and clicked “Save Changes.”
Where can I find calls that end automatically?
In the "Closed" and "All" sections of the inbox. When you open the conversation, the "Automatically closed" line in the thread shows the reason.