Conversationsintermediate

Configure the resolution timer

Set how long Done conversations wait before auto-archiving. Default is a few days; tune shorter for chat-heavy teams and longer for email-heavy ones.

3 min read

Configure the resolution timer

The resolution timer controls how long a Done conversation waits before it auto-archives. Tune it to match how your customers actually follow up.

Before you start

  • An Owner or Team Lead role — this setting is workspace-wide, not per-team.
  • A read of Conversation resolution so you know what the timer affects (Done → Archived flow, customer reopen window, CSAT firing).

Where to configure

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Choose Conversation handling.
  3. The page shows the current resolution duration as Days, Hours, and Minutes.

The same section also contains snooze policy controls, but the resolution duration fields are the ones that control Done → Archived timing.

The three fields combine into a single duration. Set 2 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes for a 48-hour window; set 0 days, 4 hours, 0 minutes for a 4-hour window.

The timer is business-hours aware — it consults your opening hours and any configured public holidays, so a conversation marked Done late on a Friday isn’t archived over the weekend before someone could see a customer reply.

Exception: if the conversation’s channel or team is configured as always closed, auto-archive treats that as no business-hours rule and uses calendar time instead. This exception applies only to the Done → Archived resolution timer; it does not redefine SLA timing.

Choosing a duration

Think about how long it typically takes a customer to follow up with “actually, one more thing”:

  • Fast, transactional (chat-heavy, in-app) — 4–24 hours
  • Standard mix (email + chat) — 1–3 days
  • Slow, async (email-heavy, B2B) — 3–7 days
  • Very slow (enterprise, contract-driven) — 7–14 days

The default duration is 4 days, and auto-archiving is off until Enable auto-archive is ticked. Adjust if your team’s reality is different.

Don’t go too short

Common mistake: “we want a clean inbox, so let’s archive after 4 hours.” Effects:

  • Customers who reply 6 hours later trigger a brand-new conversation with no context.
  • Agents lose continuity on multi-step issues.
  • Customer experience degrades because each reply feels like starting over.

If a clean inbox is the goal, look at filtering and saved filters first. Shrink the resolution window only if you can confidently say “customers don’t come back after X hours” for the majority of your traffic.

Don’t go too long

The other extreme — “we never want to lose context, archive after 30 days.” Effects:

  • The Done tab balloons and becomes unmanageable.
  • Archive-based reports lag because resolved-but-not-archived conversations can skew general resolution reporting, CSAT-at-archive timing, and average resolution time.
  • CSAT (if it fires at archive) takes forever to send — customers have moved on emotionally.
  • Genuinely closed conversations clutter search.

Agent Stack resolution, handoff, and by-channel metrics count closed stack conversations in Done or Archived, so those tiles do not wait for the resolution timer.

A few days is usually plenty. Customers who genuinely need to come back later tend to reach out again anyway, which creates a fresh, separate conversation.

What if you want different windows for different channels?

There is no per-channel or per-tag resolution override on this page today. The timer is one workspace-wide value.

If you really need different rhythms for different cohorts (chat vs. email, VIP vs. standard), express that distinction with SLA policies — SLA assignments are channel- and team-aware — and keep resolution as a single sensible default.

Testing your settings

After changing the resolution duration:

  1. Mark a small batch of ordinary test conversations Done. Avoid conversations linked to open issues when validating the timer, because linked open issues can delay auto-archive even when the timer is configured correctly.
  2. Watch them in the Done tab — confirm the auto-archive runs at roughly the time you set, accounting for opening hours. If a test conversation belongs to a channel or team that is always closed, it should still archive after the configured elapsed duration instead of staying Done indefinitely.
  3. Wait for the first auto-archive cycle and verify CSAT (if you fire it at archive) goes out correctly.
  4. Check reporting metrics over the following days — Done counts should stabilize at a new equilibrium.

Conversations linked to an issue are expected to archive only after the issue closes, so don’t use those conversations as the baseline for timer testing.

Verify it worked

  • The setting saves without error.
  • Ordinary Done conversations marked after the change archive on the new schedule.
  • Conversations linked to open issues may remain Done until the issue closes, then archive after the issue is closed.
  • A customer reply during the Done window still reopens the conversation to Active, regardless of the duration you picked.

The resolution timer is independent of the SLA timer. Done conversations have their SLA timer stopped; reopening from Done restarts the SLA timer, unless the policy measures first reply and an agent has already replied.

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