Understanding the Layout

The Inbox uses a three-panel layout designed for efficiency. Once you understand where everything lives, navigating becomes second nature.

Contact List (Left)

All your active conversations appear here. You can search, filter, and select customers to view their messages. Unread counts and platform icons help you prioritize at a glance.

Conversation View (Center)

The main chat area where you read and respond to messages. Messages arrive live, typing indicators show both sides, media renders inline, and a small avatar row warns you when a teammate is viewing the same conversation.

Customer Details (Right)

A collapsible panel with two tabs. Details holds identity, tags, contact fields, the assigned agent, priority and notes. Activity holds the widget visitor's journey. Toggle the panel with the rightmost button in the conversation header.

The Inbox with all three panels visible: contact list on the left, the conversation and its composer in the center, and the customer details panel on the right

Mobile View: On smaller screens, the panels become full-screen views that slide in and out. Use the back arrow to return to the contact list.

Success Check: You understand the three-panel layout. Click the Inbox icon in the sidebar to see it in action.

Navigating the Contact List

The contact list is your command center for finding and prioritizing conversations. With powerful search, filtering, and sorting options, you can quickly zero in on the customers who need attention.

Looking for messaging platform contacts? They're here. A contact created by an inbound WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram or email message lands in the Inbox straight away, because a message already exists. The Leads tab holds the other case: tracked widget visitors nobody has written to yet.

Quick search

The search bar at the top filters the contacts already loaded in the list — by display name, full name, username, email, or phone — as you type. Press Enter or click the arrow button to search your entire contact history on the server instead of just the loaded rows.

To search message content, click the message search icon next to the search bar. That opens a full search panel: type at least two characters, then narrow the results by time range, platform, or agent.

Filtering contacts

Click the sliders icon to open the filter panel. You can combine multiple criteria:

Assignment — Show all contacts, only those assigned to you, or unassigned ones
Platform — Filter by WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, Widget, or another connected channel. This section only appears once the list holds contacts from more than one platform
Priority — Narrow to urgent, high, normal, or low priority conversations
Tags — Filter by any tags you've applied to customers

Nothing changes in the list until you click Apply, and Clear resets every section at once. While filters are active, the sliders icon carries a badge with the number of filters in play.

The filter panel scrolled to the priority and tag sections, with Clear and Apply buttons at the bottom

Reading contact cards

Each contact card shows key information at a glance:

Visual indicators

• Platform icon (WhatsApp, Telegram, etc.)
• Online/offline dot (widget visitors only)
• Lead score bar (contacts not yet marked as customers)
• Unread message count
• Mute and ban icons, when either applies

Quick info

• Customer name and avatar
• Last message preview
• Assigned agent avatar
• Applied tags

Pro Tip: Right-click any contact for quick actions: tags, conversation status, priority, rename, mute, and — for widget visitors — ban. Admins and owners also get export and delete.

Success Check: You can search, filter, and interpret contact cards. Try filtering by "Assigned to me" to see only your conversations.

Managing Conversations

Converge organizes conversations into two status categories: Open and Resolved. Moving conversations through these statuses keeps your inbox clean and helps track your team's workload.

Open (Inbox)

Active conversations that need attention. New messages automatically appear here. This is your primary workspace.

Resolved

Issues that have been solved. Move conversations here when the customer's question is answered. They'll reopen if the customer messages again.

Changing conversation status

1
Open a conversation
Click any contact in the list to load their messages in the center panel.
2
Click the status button in the header
The button shows the current status — an inbox tray for Open, a checkmark for Resolved. Click it to open the status menu.
3
Select the new status
Choose Open or Resolved — the current status is greyed out. The conversation moves to the matching tab in the sidebar right away.

Two things ride along with this menu. Admins and owners get a Scan for knowledge item that asks the AI to pull reusable facts out of the conversation — see the AI Guide. And if CSAT surveys are switched on, resolving a conversation offers to send the customer a satisfaction survey, covered in the CSAT Guide.

Pro Tip: You can also change status from the contact list by right-clicking a contact and selecting the status from the context menu.

Success Check: You know how to move conversations through the OpenResolved workflow.

Customer Details Panel

The right panel gives you a complete view of who you're talking to. Toggle it with the panel button at the far right of the conversation header. It has two tabs: Details and Activity.

The Details tab

Platform & Identity

See which platform they messaged from, their username, avatar, and full name. Edit the Name field to show a custom name across your workspace.

Contact Information

View and edit phone number, email, language, country, city, device, and IP address. Click any field to edit it inline. When an IP address is known, a company and network breakdown appears underneath it.

Priority & SLA

Set the conversation priority — urgent, high, normal, or low. If an SLA policy covers that priority, a card below it counts down the first-response and resolution deadlines and flags breaches.

Assignment

Assign the customer to a specific team member using the dropdown. The assigned agent's avatar appears on the contact card.

Notes

Add internal notes about the customer. Notes are visible only to your team, never to the customer.

Visitor Access

For widget visitors only: ban abusive or spam users to block them from sending messages. Banned visitors see a "blocked" message in the widget. Their conversation history and notes are preserved for your review.

The customer details panel showing the Details and Activity tabs, contact fields, assigned agent, IP enrichment, priority, and notes

The Activity tab

For widget visitors, the second tab holds everything the tracker recorded before and between conversations: lead score, first visit, source page, referrer and UTM campaign parameters, plus sessions, page views, total time on site, top pages, and a chronological timeline. At the foot of the lead card, Mark as Customer converts the lead — after that the lead score bar disappears from their contact card. The tab is hidden for contacts that have no visitor data, such as those created by an inbound WhatsApp message.

Success Check: You can view and edit customer information, add tags, assign agents, and create internal notes.

Sending Messages

The message input area at the bottom of the conversation view is where you craft your responses. It supports formatting, attachments, quick replies, AI assistance, and on-demand translation.

Basic messaging

1
Type your message
Click in the text area and start typing. The box expands as you write longer messages.
2
Format if needed
The toolbar wraps your selection in bold (Ctrl+B), italic (Ctrl+I), underline (Ctrl+U), strikethrough, or inline code. Underline is hidden on WhatsApp, which has no underline markup. Add emojis from the emoji picker.
3
Send
Press Enter or click the send button. Use Shift+Enter for a new line without sending.

Attachments

Click the paperclip icon to attach images, videos, or files. You can also paste images from your clipboard or drag and drop files directly into the message area.

Platform limitations: Some platforms have restrictions on file types or sizes. Converge automatically validates attachments against each platform's requirements.

Quick Replies

Above the message input sits one pill per Quick Reply group, each with the number of replies it holds. Click a pill to open that group and pick a reply — it drops straight into the composer. When the AI spots a saved reply that matches what the customer just asked, it highlights that group and opens it for you. Learn more in the Replies Guide.

AI assistance

The AI button in the toolbar reads the conversation and drafts a reply for you (Ctrl+Shift+S). With text already in the box it switches to Polish, rewriting what you wrote instead. Everything lands in the composer as an editable draft — nothing is sent for you. See the AI Guide.

Translation

When the customer's language differs from yours, a Translate button appears. Click it to translate the draft you've written; you'll see the translated text before it goes out, and the send button shows the target language's flag.

The message input showing quick reply group pills, the formatting toolbar, the AI polish button, and the attachment and send buttons

When you can't just type

A few channels put rules around outbound messages, and the composer adapts rather than failing on send. If a platform's service window has expired — WhatsApp's 24-hour rule, for example — the composer swaps to a template picker. If an integration has been disconnected, or the email thread came from a no-reply address, the box is disabled and tells you why. You can also start a fresh conversation from the empty chat screen with the compose button; that route is email only, needs a connected email integration, and isn't available during the trial.

Pro Tip: Your message drafts are automatically saved. Switch to another conversation and back—your unsent message will still be there.

Success Check: You can send formatted messages, attach files, use quick replies, and translate on the fly.

Bulk Actions

Need to update multiple conversations at once? Bulk actions let you change status, delete, or export up to 10 contacts at a time.

Entering selection mode

1
Click the checkbox icon
In the contact list header, click the checkbox icon to enter selection mode.
2
Select contacts
Click contact cards or their checkboxes to select them. Select all takes the first 10 visible contacts, and ten is the hard cap — try to add an eleventh and Converge tells you so instead of selecting it.
3
Apply an action
Use the toolbar buttons to change status to Open/Resolved, delete contacts (Admin only), or export data.

Selection mode with three contacts checked and the bulk action toolbar showing the selected count, select all, status, delete, and export buttons

Admin Only: Deleting contacts and exporting data require Admin or Owner permissions. Regular team members can change statuses but not delete.

Success Check: You can select multiple contacts and apply bulk status changes, deletions, or exports.

Best Practices & Tips

Resolve conversations proactively

After solving a customer's issue, mark the conversation as Resolved. This keeps your inbox focused on active issues and gives you accurate workload metrics.

Use tags to categorize

Create tags like "VIP", "Billing Issue", or "Feature Request". Filter by tags to find related conversations or prioritize high-value customers.

Assign ownership

Assign conversations to specific team members to avoid duplicate responses. Filter by "Assigned to me" to focus on your queue.

Add notes for context

Before handing off a conversation, add a note summarizing the issue and any actions taken. Future agents will thank you.

Mute non-urgent contacts

Right-click and mute contacts who send frequent but non-urgent messages. You'll still see their messages—just without notifications. If pushes aren't reaching you at all, follow the notification settings setup for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and mobile PWAs.

Use keyboard shortcuts

Press Enter to send, Shift+Enter for new lines, Ctrl+B/I/U for formatting, and Ctrl+Shift+S for an AI draft. These small efficiencies add up over hundreds of messages.