What are Snippets?

Snippets are pre-written reply templates that help agents respond quickly and consistently. Instead of typing the same response to the same question hundreds of times, agents insert a snippet, personalize where needed, and send.

The whole point of snippets is to remove the typing toil from the predictable parts of replies — return policy text, shipping FAQs, password-reset instructions, sign-offs — while keeping the agent in control of tone, context, and personalization.

What a snippet contains

• Title — What you’ll see in the snippet picker (e.g. Return policy — standard)
• Shortcode — Quick-type code to insert the snippet (e.g. return). Type !!return in the reply editor and the snippet expands
• Content — The body — rich text (bold, italic, underline, lists, links), with support for embedded variables, inline images, and file attachments (PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, plain text, CSV)
• Group — Organizes snippets into folders, shown in the Settings sidebar and as a category in the snippet picker (e.g. “Billing”, “Onboarding”). Groups can define defaults — visibility, team restrictions, category — that prefill new snippets created inside them
• Category — An optional free-text tag, separate from Group, shown as a small badge next to the snippet’s title when browsing “All Snippets”
• Scope — Personal (just you) or Global (everyone, or specific teams) — only available to you if you’re allowed to manage global snippets; otherwise every snippet you create is Personal
• Team restrictions — Optionally limit who sees the snippet to specific teams
• Signature — Personal snippets only — mark one as “Use as my email signature” and it’s automatically appended to the bottom of every email reply you open. Only one signature snippet at a time

Variables make snippets feel personal

Snippets support dynamic variables that auto-populate when the snippet expands. A snippet like:

Hi {{contact.firstName}}, this is {{agent.firstName}} following up on your request.

becomes:

Hi Erik, this is Maria following up on your request.

Without variables, snippets feel robotic. With them, the response reads like it was typed for the recipient. Variables are grouped into two built-in categories — Agent (display name, first/last/full name, email) and Customer/Caller (name, first/last name, email, phone) — plus any custom CRM fields your workspace has defined (e.g. {{contact.custom.plan_tier}}). See the variables reference for the full list.

Groups vs. categories

Snippets can be organized two different ways, and it’s easy to mix them up:

• Groups are folders. They appear in the Settings → Snippets sidebar (alongside “All Snippets” and “Ungrouped”) and as their own entries in the reply picker’s category list. Admins create and manage groups, and can set defaults for new snippets created inside a group (visibility, team restrictions, category) — those defaults only prefill the form and never change existing snippets.
• Category is a lightweight, optional free-text label on an individual snippet. It shows up as a badge next to the snippet’s title and can be used to filter or search, but it isn’t a folder and has no management screen of its own.

Personal vs Global

• Personal — Only you — You
• Global — Everyone (or scoped to specific teams) — Owners, Admins, Team Leads, or anyone granted the “Manage global snippets” permission

Personal snippets are for an individual agent’s idiosyncratic replies — your specific sign-off, a phrase you often reach for, a one-off response you customized for a recurring scenario.

Global snippets are organizational standards — the company’s return policy text, the official escalation procedure wording, brand-aligned greetings. The roles and permission listed above maintain these so the whole team uses the same language. If you don’t hold one of them, you won’t see a Visibility option when creating or editing a snippet at all — every snippet you create is Personal.

Any snippet — personal or global — can optionally be restricted to specific teams, though this is most useful for Global snippets: Billing snippets only show up for the Billing team’s agents, keeping the snippet picker relevant.

Quick-access patterns

Ways to find or insert a snippet while replying:

• Shortcode — type !!<code> in the reply editor (or the note composer’s selection toolbar). The fastest path when you know what you want.
• Picker — open the snippet picker UI and browse its category list: All Snippets (shown as “Search Results” while you’re searching), Personal, Global, Recently Used, Favorites, and one entry for each Snippet Group in your workspace. Snippets relevant to your team are grouped under “Suggested for Your Team” within a category. You can also search by title, shortcode, or body text.
• Preview — with the picker open wide enough (e.g. a docked reply panel, not the narrow command palette), press p or click the eye icon next to a snippet to open a read-only preview of its full content — including variable placeholders — before inserting it.
• Favorites — star frequently-used snippets (up to your workspace’s configured maximum) for quick access, pinned at the top of the picker’s list.
• Save as Snippet — highlight text you’ve already typed in a reply and either click the floating “Save as Snippet” toolbar or press Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+S to turn it into a new snippet on the spot.

The picker also supports full keyboard navigation:

• ← / → — switch between the categories pane and the snippets pane
• ↑ / ↓ — move the highlight up or down within the active pane
• Enter — insert the highlighted snippet, or open the highlighted category
• + / = — add the highlighted snippet to favorites
• - — remove the highlighted snippet from favorites
• p — toggle the preview pane (when there’s room to show one)
• Escape — close the picker

Snippets and Actions are different

Don’t confuse the two:

• Snippets insert text into a reply you’re composing. The agent still picks send.
• Actions execute system operations on the conversation — assign, tag, change status, fire an automation. They can run independently of any reply.

Both surface in the conversation view, but they serve different needs. See Actions for the action equivalent.

Where to start

• Build a snippet: Create a snippet
• Use one in a reply: Use a snippet in a reply
• Find the right variables: Variables reference