Overview
Conversation routing defines what happens when a customer sends a message after their conversation has been resolved. Each inbox has two modes:
- Reopen the same conversation — the platform reuses the contact's existing conversation and reopens it automatically when they reply. The whole history stays in one place.
- Create new conversations — after resolution, the contact's next message opens a new conversation, already open for the team. Each request becomes a separate ticket.
The setting lives under Settings → Inboxes → (your inbox) → Configuration, in the "Conversation routing" section.
Prerequisites
- Administrator role to change inbox settings.
- Supported channels: WhatsApp (Cloud and WhatsApp Web), Website (platform live chat), SMS, Telegram, Line, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and API.
- The email channel does not use this control: emails are grouped by thread (subject/headers), and a new message after resolution always opens a new conversation, by design.
Step by step
- Go to Settings → Inboxes and open the inbox.
- On the Configuration tab, find Conversation routing.
- Pick Reopen the same conversation or Create new conversations.
- Save. The change applies immediately to the next incoming messages.
Settings & options
- Reopen the same conversation
- When the customer replies, the resolved conversation reopens instantly: it returns to the open tab, notifies the team and enters auto-assignment.
- If a bot (Maestro/virtual agent) is active and inside its configured hours, the conversation goes back to the bot first; otherwise it opens straight to the team.
- WhatsApp groups and channels follow the same behavior: the shared group conversation is reopened instead of duplicated.
- If the contact has more than one conversation in the inbox (legacy data), the platform prioritizes the conversation that is still open — a conversation being worked is never abandoned in favor of a newer resolved one.
- Create new conversations
- The resolved conversation stays closed as a historical record; the customer's reply opens a new conversation, open and visible to the team.
- Website chat: website inboxes ship with Reopen the same conversation enabled by default (the classic widget behavior). You can switch to "Create new conversations" at any time.
- Blocked contact: messages from a blocked contact are dropped and do not reopen the muted conversation.
Use cases
- Ongoing relationship (recommended for WhatsApp): with "Reopen the same conversation", the agent sees the customer's full history in a single thread — ideal for sales, recurring support and post-sales.
- Ticket-based operation: with "Create new conversations", every request becomes a ticket with its own start and end — ideal for per-request SLAs and per-conversation reporting.
Tips, limits & best practices
- Reopening happens when the customer sends a message. Messages the operator sends from the native app (echoes) do not reopen the conversation.
- Campaign sends do not reopen resolved conversations — the customer's reply does.
- Combine with Auto resolve (account settings) to close inactive conversations without losing new messages: when the customer replies, the same conversation reopens.
- On WhatsApp inboxes with a legacy backlog of duplicated conversations, "Reopen the same conversation" concentrates new messages into a single thread from now on.
Troubleshooting
- "The customer replied and the conversation did not reopen" — confirm the inbox is set to "Reopen the same conversation" and the contact is not blocked. If a bot is active, the conversation may have returned to the bot queue (pending status) instead of the open tab.
- "Every message creates a new conversation" — the inbox is set to "Create new conversations". Switch to "Reopen the same conversation" for a single thread per contact.
- "The new conversation was born pending and nobody saw it" — that only happens when a bot will actually act; if the bot is outside its hours or disabled for the conversation, it is born open.