> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.watx.in/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Working a conversation > Assign a conversation, change its status, see who else is in it, and use the contact panel beside the thread. Everything on this page is about one thread: who owns it, what state it is in, and what your team can see about the person on the other end. ## Status A conversation is **Open**, **Pending** or **Closed**. Change it from the dropdown in the thread header, or from the row's actions menu without opening the thread at all. Closing does not archive or hide anything — the conversation stays in the list, and the **Closed** filter is how you keep it out of your working queue. A new message from the customer arrives in the same conversation whatever its status. Triage from the list, not from the thread. Opening a conversation marks it read, which is exactly what you were avoiding when you decided to deal with it later. ## The row actions menu Hover a row in the conversation list and a menu appears in its top-right corner. | Action | What it does | | ------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Mark as read** / **Mark as unread** | Clears the unread badge, or puts one back. Marking the open conversation unread closes the reading pane first, because a thread you are looking at cannot stay unread. | | **Status → Open / Pending / Closed** | Same three states as the header dropdown. | | **Copy number** / **Copy handle** | Copies the contact's phone number, or their Instagram handle for a contact who has no number. | | **Delete conversation** | Deletes the thread and every message in it. The dialog tells you how many messages that is. | Deleting cannot be undone. The **contact is not deleted**, and a new message from them starts a fresh conversation. Members with the Viewer role see only **Copy number** / **Copy handle** — they can read the Inbox but not change anything in it. See [Members and roles](/settings/members-and-roles). ## Owner — a teammate or an AI agent The **Owner** dropdown in the thread header answers one question: who has this thread. It lists the workspace's AI agents first, then your teammates, each with a presence dot showing whether they are online. Your own row is marked *(me)*. * **Picking a teammate** assigns the conversation to them. It also stands the AI down: while a human owns a thread, the bot does not reply to it. * **Picking an AI agent** hands the thread to that agent and clears the human assignment. * **Unassign** clears the human owner only. The agent that had the thread earlier picks it back up, so the customer does not meet a new persona because the thread changed hands twice. The button label shows the current answer: a teammate's name, an agent's name, **AI paused**, or **Unassigned**. ### Pausing the AI on one thread Next to the owner control is a switch reading **AI on**, **AI paused** or **AI standing by**. * **AI on** — an agent may answer this conversation. * **AI paused** — you have paused it here. This happens automatically the moment a human replies, so the bot never talks over an agent mid-sentence. Click to resume. * **AI standing by** — a teammate owns the thread, so the agent is silent whatever the pause setting says. Clear the owner to let it reply. Everything else about agents is on [AI agents](/ai-agents/overview). ## Who else is looking The Inbox shows live presence, so two people do not answer the same customer twice. * A small people glyph on a list row means a teammate has that conversation open. * Inside the thread, a strip under the header names them: *"Anil is also viewing"*, or *"Anil is also replying"* once they start typing. Typing outranks viewing. Past two people it becomes *"Anil and 3 others"*. Presence is based on tabs that are actually open; an entry older than about a minute and a half is ignored, so a suspended laptop does not keep claiming a thread. ## The contact panel The panel beside the thread carries what you need mid-conversation, without leaving it. * **Name, company and avatar**, with the phone number or `@handle` as a click-to-copy row, plus the email when there is one. * **Tags** on the contact. * **Segments** the contact belongs to, with an **Edit** link that opens the segment picker. Filter segments work out their own members and cannot be edited here — see [Segments](/contacts/segments). * **Active Deals** — title, value and stage for each deal raised against this contact. See [Pipelines and deals](/contacts/pipelines-and-deals). * **Notes** — a box to write one and the list of previous notes with their dates. Notes are internal; the customer never sees them. For the full record — the address, custom fields, marketing consent and the whole activity timeline — open the contact from [Contacts](/contacts/overview). ## The reply window On WhatsApp the header carries a countdown pill showing how long is left in the 24-hour window that opened when the customer last wrote. When it runs out the pill reads **Expired**, the composer is disabled and only an approved template will send. Read [The 24-hour window](/whatsapp/messaging-window) for the rule itself, and [Sending messages](/inbox/sending) for what to do about it. Instagram has the same 24-hour limit but no templates, so a closed Instagram thread waits until the person writes again. Website chats have no window at all.