Understand conversation states

Omnichannel for Customer Service offers a suite of capabilities that extend the power of Dynamics 365 Customer Service Enterprise to enable organizations to instantly connect and engage with their customers across digital messaging channels. An additional license is required to access Omnichannel for Customer Service. For more information, see the Dynamics 365 Customer Service pricing overview and Dynamics 365 Customer Service pricing plan pages.

This topic explains the various states and status reasons of the conversation (work item) in Omnichannel for Customer Service.

The conversation can be in an open or closed state, and can have the following status reasons:

• Open
• Active
• Waiting
• Wrap-up
• Closed

Channel refers to SMS, social, and Microsoft Teams channels supported in Omnichannel for Customer Service.

Note

Additionally, the conversation might have the resolved or scheduled status reason, which is for internal use only.

Open

The conversation (work item) that is in the queue and not assigned to you (agent) is classified under Open state.

The conversation (work item) transitions from Open to Active or Closed under the following scenarios.

From status reason	To status reason	Scenario	Type
Open	Active	When you pick the conversation from the Open work items stream. When the routing and work distribution feature pushes (assigns) the conversation to you.	Channel Chat
Open	Closed	When the customer disconnects or ends the chat before the conversation is assigned to you.	Chat

Active

The conversation that you pick or that is assigned to you is classified under Active. In Active, your capacity is consumed.

The conversation (work item) transitions from Active to Closed, Open, Waiting, or Wrap-up under the following scenarios.

From status reason	To status reason	Scenario	Type
Active	Wrap-up	When you select the End button on communication panel during the conversation with the customer. When customer ends the conversation by selecting the End button on the portal chat widget (only for a chat channel). When the customer is disconnected from the conversation (applicable only to Live chat channel).	Channel Chat
Active	Open	When you disconnect the conversation and don't reconnect within a specified timeout period. When you release the conversation to the queue. When you transfer the conversation to another queue. When you close the session while the conversation is active (applicable only to Live chat channel).	Channel Chat
Active	Waiting	When you close the session (not ending the conversation by selecting the End button) while the conversation is active.	Channel The status change isn't applicable to Live chat.
Active	Closed	When you resolve the case (or get a record to non-active state) and close the session.	Record

Wrap-up

This is an intermediate state after you end the conversation, when you can do post-conversation activities such as taking notes and update the customer information, before moving the conversation to the Closed state. In the Wrap-up state, your (agent) capacity is blocked according to the duration that your administrator has selected in the Block capacity for wrap up field in the workstream. If your administrator has selected Always block, your capacity is blocked as long as the conversation is in the Wrap-up state. If the Don't block setting is selected, your capacity is released as soon as conversation moves from Active to Wrap-up state. Your administrator might also select a duration ranging from 1 minute to 60 minutes.

The conversation (work item) transitions from Wrap-up to Closed under the following scenario.

From status reason	To status reason	Scenario	Type
Wrap-up	Closed	When you select the End button in communication panel and close the session.	Channel Chat

Waiting

Note

Waiting state applies only to asynchronous and persistent chats, and not live chats.

A conversation in waiting doesn't block your capacity. The conversation gets transitioned to waiting when you (agent) close the session without ending the conversation (that is, without selecting the End button on the communication panel) or when the customer closes the browser window without closing the chat widget. For example, you're waiting for some information from customer and don't want to end the conversation or the customer's browser closes unexpectedly.

The conversation (work item) transitions from Waiting to Closed, Active, or Open under the following scenarios.

From status reason	To status reason	Scenario	Type
Waiting	Closed	When there's no activity on this conversation from either customer or agent, within inactivity timeout period.	Channel
Waiting	Active	When you revive the session from your My work items stream on Omnichannel Agent Dashboard.	Channel
Waiting	Open	When the customer revives the conversation within a specified timeout period while the session is still active in the browser.	Channel

Closed

The conversations that are completed by ending them or closing the session are classified as Closed conversations. You can't reactivate or reopen closed conversations.

Automatically close conversations

Omnichannel for Customer Service has a default time set for the conversation to close automatically. That is, if a conversation in a certain stage remains in the stage for more than the default time, then the conversation is moved to the closed state. Conversations achieve a closure, and agents can focus on important conversation, which ultimately enhances the productivity.

The Omnichannel for Customer Service application checks the conversations every 12 hours to identify those that do not transition for more than the default configured time. Such conversations become eligible for automatic closure, and the next time that the scheduler runs, these conversations are moved from the existing state to the Closed state.

Important

To avoid inaccurate statuses, we recommend that you don't change the conversation state and status reason by manually updating the records in Microsoft Dataverse.

Default time for automatic closure of conversations

All channels have different default configured time after which conversations can be moved to the Closed state. However, the exact time at which the scheduler runs is dependent on the Omnichannel for Customer Service deployment time in your region. For more information, contact Microsoft support.

The following table describes the channel, status reason, and default configured time.

Channel	Existing status reason	Default configured time	Description
Chat	Open	20 min	For a chat channel, a conversation in the Open state for more than 20 minutes is eligible for automatic closure. Next time, when the scheduler runs, the conversation will be moved from the Open state to the Closed state.
Chat	Active	None	For a chat channel, a conversation in the Active won’t be automatically closed.
Chat	Wrap-up	15 minutes	For a chat channel, a conversation that is in the Wrap-up stage for more than 15 minutes is eligible for automatic closure. Next time, when the scheduler runs, the conversation will be moved from Wrap-up to the Closed state.
Records (Case)	Open	None	For a records (case) channel, a conversation in the Open won’t be automatically closed.
Records (Case)	Active	None	For a records (case) channel, a conversation that is Active won’t be automatically closed.
SMS, Teams, persistent chat, and social	Open	30 days	In an asynchronous channel—such as SMS, Teams, persistent chat, or a social channel—a conversation that has been in the Open state for more than 30 days is eligible for automatic closure. Next time, when the scheduler runs, the conversation will be moved from the Open state to the Closed state.
SMS, Teams, and social	Active	30 days	In an asynchronous channel—such as SMS, Teams, or a social channel—a conversation that has been in the Active state for more than 30 days is eligible for automatic closure. Next time, when the scheduler runs, the conversation will be moved from Active to the Closed state.
SMS, Teams, persistent chat, and social	Wrap-up	1 day	In an asynchronous channel—such as SMS, Teams, persistent chat, or a social channel—a conversation that has been in the Wrap-up state for more than 1 day is eligible for automatic closure. Next time, when the scheduler runs, the conversation will be moved from Wrap-up to the Closed state.

For example, let's say the scheduler runs every 12 hours starting at 0000 hours.

For the chat channel, consider a conversation that's in the Open state at 1800 hours of Jan 10, 2020, and remains in this state until 2359 hours at night. Because the conversation is open for more than 20 minutes (default configured time), this conversation is eligible for automatic closure. At 0000 hours of Jan 11, 2020, when the scheduler runs, the conversation that's in the Open state is moved to the Closed state.

Conversation in waiting

A conversation in Waiting is moved to the Closed state when the conversation is inactive for a specified time. The inactive time can be set in the workstream for the Auto-close after inactivity option, based on which the conversation will be moved to the closed state after the criteria is met.

For example, when you set Auto-close after inactivity to 5 minutes, the conversation is moved to the Closed state if it has been in Waiting for more than 5 minutes.

To learn more, see Create a workstream.

Set default time using APIs

Programmatically, you can change the default time and set it as per your organization's requirements using the Web APIs. To learn more, see Configure automatic closure of conversations.

See also

View communication panel
Configure automatic closure of conversations