Workflows: Trigger on Conversation Inactivity after X Time
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Nabilah Binti Salleh
Business Problem
There is no native time-based trigger in respond.io that fires based on inactivity in an open conversation. Teams cannot automatically detect when a contact has gone quiet mid-conversation, or when an agent has not replied to a contact within a defined period — and take action on it.
Desired Outcome
A native Workflow Trigger that fires when no message has been sent within a configurable time window (X minutes/hours) on an open conversation, with the ability to specify the direction:
- Contact inactivity — time since last incoming message (contact hasn't replied)
- Agent inactivity — time since last outgoing message (agent/AI hasn't replied)
Use Cases
- When a contact goes quiet mid-conversation, there is no native way to trigger a follow-up.
- Agent follow-up accountability: A team receiving 30–40 new leads daily cannot manually check each conversation to see if agents have replied. An inactivity trigger would alert or reassign automatically when an agent hasn't responded within X hours
- High volume support: Teams want to automatically send a holding message when no agent has replied within 30 minutes, before the contact loses patience