Settings: Auto-close conversations after a defined period
complete
K
Katriel S
Business Problem
Currently, conversation closure is highly dependent on manual intervention by human agents. This reliance on memory and manual effort leads to several critical issues:
- Operational inefficiencies: Conversations remain open indefinitely when a contact stops cluttering the workspace.
- Broken automation loops: Open conversations often prevent AI agents or specific Workflows from re-triggering when a contact eventually returns, leading to perceived platform malfunctions and missed follow-ups.
- Skewed reporting: Unclosed conversations distort reports, making it difficult for businesses to measure actual resolution times and for respond.io to demonstrate true platform value.
Desired Outcome
To have an option to auto-close conversations based on a pre-determined timing.This ensures a "clean" inbox state, accurate reporting, and the seamless re-triggering of AI and automation for future interactions.
N
Nabilah Binti Salleh
updated the status to
complete
⏰✅ Cleaner inbox, accurate reports — automatically!
Inactive conversations now close automatically after a set period, so your team stays focused on active chats and your resolution times reflect real effort. Learn more
A
Alyaa See
Merged in a post:
Are we able to close inactive chats? Say if in active after 45 days, then the workflow closes it.
H
Hann Sze
A
Alyaa See
Merged in a post:
Auto-Close Conversations Based on Inactivity with Customizable Time Rules
Ayoola Rofiat Morenikeji
It would be greatly beneficial to have a more flexible auto-close/resolve feature for conversations based on inactivity periods.
Currently, the options for automatically closing or resolving conversations feel limited. A more powerful implementation could include:
Custom inactivity timers: Allow teams to set their own time threshold (e.g., close after 2 hours, 24 hours, or 7 days of no response).
Channel-specific rules: Apply different auto-close rules depending on the channel (WhatsApp, Messenger, Live Chat, etc.) since response expectations differ per platform.
Pre-close notification: Send an automated message to the customer before closing, such as "We haven't heard from you in a while. We'll close this conversation shortly unless you respond."
Reopen on reply: Automatically reopen a resolved conversation if the customer replies again, keeping context intact.
This would help teams keep their inboxes clean, improve response metrics, and deliver a more professional customer experience, without requiring manual effort from agents.
Would love to see this prioritized! Happy to discuss further if the team needs more input.
N
Nabilah Binti Salleh
updated the status to
in progress
S
Shi Hui
Hi @Katriel S, could you share with us more of your use case on this?
K
Katriel S
Shi Hui: Sure, We use Respond.io to manage our WhatsApp Business account and we have 24hour session message period, I would like to have a feature that would set a schedule to close the conversation after 24 hours (or whatever time user selects) and cancel the scheduled closing if the customer sends a message or the business sends another template message. This would help keep the open conversations tab less cluttered and makes it easier for the team to manage conversations.
S
Shi Hui
Katriel S: Understand! You want to close the conversation when the 24 hours messaging window is over. Thank you for your feedback, we will look into this when it becomes a priority.
In the meantime, you might want to consider this workaround using Workflow:
Create a Workflow with "Shortcut" Trigger
Step 1: Wait step of e.g. 24 hrs
Step 2: Branch step-Branch 1 condition: Last interaction time is greater than 24 hrs ago
Branch 1: Close conversation step (If the last interaction time is greater than 24 hrs, the messaging window should be closed)
Else branch: Can be anything for e.g. wait for 2 hours then jump back to branch step.
With this, your team can trigger this Shortcut to schedule to close conversation. Let me know if this helps!😊
K
Katriel S
Shi Hui: Oh nice! thank you, we can remove this since it can be done via a workflow.