Overview
Auto resolve closes conversations with no activity after the period you define, keeping the queue clean without manual work. The platform protects by default conversations that are still awaiting an agent's reply: a conversation whose last visible message is from the customer is never auto-resolved — preventing an unanswered request from silently vanishing from the queue.
The setting lives under Settings → Account settings → Auto resolve.
Prerequisites
- Administrator role to change account settings.
- Minimum inactivity period: 10 minutes; maximum: 999 days.
Step by step
- Go to Settings → Account settings.
- Turn on the Auto resolve switch.
- Set the inactivity period (minutes, hours or days).
- Optional: write the closing message sent to the customer on resolution.
- Optional: pick a label applied to auto-resolved conversations.
- Optional: enable "Also resolve conversations awaiting an agent's reply — not recommended" only if you want to turn the default protection off.
- Save.
Settings & options
- Inactivity period — counted from the conversation's last activity. Once elapsed, the open conversation is resolved on the next check cycle.
- Closing message — sent to the customer at auto-resolution time (for example: "We closed this conversation due to inactivity; reply to reopen").
- Post-resolution label — makes it easy to filter and measure the automatically closed volume.
- Awaiting-reply protection (default) — conversations whose last visible message is from the customer are excluded from auto-resolution, even when inactive. The team keeps seeing the pending request in the queue.
- Also resolve conversations awaiting a reply — not recommended — an explicit option that turns the protection off. Use it only if your operation prefers closing everything by inactivity, regardless of who spoke last.
Rule per inbox
Each inbox can behave differently from the account. In Settings → Inboxes → (the inbox) → Conversation rules, pick one of the three options under Auto-resolve on inactivity:
- Follow the account rule (default) — the inbox uses what is configured on the account. If the account has no auto-resolve rule, conversations in this inbox are not resolved on their own.
- Use its own rule — the inbox has its own period, closing message, label and "waiting for a reply" preference. The inbox rule replaces the account rule as a whole and works even when auto-resolve is off on the account.
- Never auto-resolve in this inbox — conversations in this inbox stay out of auto-resolve, even with the account rule on.
The screen always shows the rule in effect and where it comes from (account or inbox). The Restore the account default button returns the inbox to the account rule. On the account screen, the list Inboxes that do not follow the account rule shows every exception.
Example: WhatsApp closing after 30 minutes, e-mail after 2 days, and a groups inbox that never closes on its own.
Use cases
- High-volume support: automatically close conversations where the customer stopped replying after the solution, keeping resolution metrics realistic.
- Sales teams: combine with the automatic label (e.g. "no-reply") to feed follow-up cadences.
Tips, limits & best practices
- Resolution runs on periodic cycles and processes conversations in batches — on accounts with many eligible conversations, closing may be spread across a few cycles.
- Combine with the inbox Conversation routing: with "Reopen the same conversation" enabled, a customer who replies after resolution reopens the SAME conversation, keeping the history.
- The closing message also restarts the messaging window on windowed channels (such as WhatsApp) — write it with that in mind.
Troubleshooting
- "An inactive conversation was not resolved" — check whether its last visible message is from the customer with no team reply: in that case the default protection keeps it open, by design. Reply or resolve it manually (or enable the opt-in, not recommended).
- "Unattended conversations were being closed" — confirm the "Also resolve conversations awaiting a reply" option is off; with it off the default protection applies to all conversations.
- "The customer replied after resolution and a new conversation opened" — the inbox is set to "Create new conversations"; switch it to "Reopen the same conversation" for a single thread.
- "I changed the account rule and one inbox did not change" — that inbox has its own rule or has auto-resolve turned off. Open Conversation rules on the inbox and use Restore the account default.