AMA

Linked conversations AMA: create new action items from conversations

  • 29 November 2023
  • 20 replies
  • 1135 views
helena
Userlevel 4
Badge +5

We’ve all experienced those times when a single customer email generates several action items and requires us to work with multiple people. Good news is that we have Front, which already enables us to be very efficient at internal collaboration — but the better news is that we now have a brand new feature to help you spin off new conversations linked to the original so that you can keep all the related tasks organized! Enter linked conversations, the newest way to streamline your work even further.

Here’s how it works:


If you have any questions about this feature, our product team is eager to hear them and will answer them on Thursday, December 7 (including any that come in after this date). Leave them for us below 😀

Helena, Product Education Lead

20 replies

Front User
Userlevel 2
Badge +2

When would I use linked conversations?

Front User
Userlevel 2
Badge +2

Can I link existing conversations together in addition to creating new linked conversations? 

Front User
Userlevel 2
Badge +2

How can I assign a linked conversation?

P
Userlevel 2
Badge +4

Any plans on including the ability to link Discussions in addition to Conversations? Being able to link a discussion including one or more teammates or even an inbox would be fantastic! I think this would enable workflows that would help a lot of people looking for this type of functionality: https://front.ideas.aha.io/ideas/PRD-I-1906

vincent

Linking two different (existing) conversations would be a game changer.

stefano

Can I link existing conversations together in addition to creating new linked conversations? 

Had the same question. They could have it work much like merge when you select two messages link shows as alternative to merge (older conversation becomes main, newer, linked). Or/in addition to it we culd drag a message into another and have the dragged one become the linked one.

rehan

Just submitted an idea for this, but being able to link live chats to emails would be valuable for us. 

 https://front.ideas.aha.io/ideas/PRD-I-5833

B
Badge

Interesting idea! But I’m not sure if our team could use this currently.

How is this different than pasting a conversation ID from one conversation to another? I think this solves the issues of linking existing conversations. 

 

Ideally, we would be able to create Topics (Similar to linking existing conversations to Jira issues) and then link new or existing conversation to the topics which you could view in a plugin or in your personal inbox. 

 

MaggieL
Badge

Any plans on including the ability to link Discussions in addition to Conversations? Being able to link a discussion including one or more teammates or even an inbox would be fantastic! I think this would enable workflows that would help a lot of people looking for this type of functionality: https://front.ideas.aha.io/ideas/PRD-I-1906

Yes! We do have plans to extend linked conversations to include Discussions. We don’t have a concrete timeline for this as of today as we are prioritizing a few other additions like the ability to link existing conversations together. 

That said, I’m curious to learn more about your use-case and how you envision using discussions and linked conversations. Thank you! 

MaggieL
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Linking two different (existing) conversations would be a game changer.

@vincent @stefano @Caitlin @mattpwi A few of you asked this question. Yes, we are currently working on the ability to link existing conversations together! There will be a few ways you could accomplish doing this but one way will definitely be the ability to multi-select a few different conversations and then choose the original conversation you would like to link to.

MaggieL
Badge

Just submitted an idea for this, but being able to link live chats to emails would be valuable for us. 

 https://front.ideas.aha.io/ideas/PRD-I-5833

Hi @rehan, yes our team is currently working on the ability to link live chats to emails! The solution is still being designed so there isn’t a concrete date I can share at the moment but it will be possible in the near future :) 

MaggieL
Badge

Interesting idea! But I’m not sure if our team could use this currently.

How is this different than pasting a conversation ID from one conversation to another? I think this solves the issues of linking existing conversations. 

Ideally, we would be able to create Topics (Similar to linking existing conversations to Jira issues) and then link new or existing conversation to the topics which you could view in a plugin or in your personal inbox. 

 

@becca thanks for asking! A lot of our customers currently paste conversation links in comments to link conversations together manually. Our linked conversations feature is now a built in feature that automates that manual copy/paste process and also allows an easy way to pin all related conversations to the top of the conversation similar to what you are describing in your 2nd point/screenshot. Here is a screenshot of what that looks like: 

 

MaggieL
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When would I use linked conversations?

You’d use linked conversations if you have multiple action items that spin off from an original request. Example use cases:

  • One email has several different questions within and it would be cleaner to answer each one separately to allow back-and-forth discussion on the topic, such as a support request with multiple troubleshooting questions
  • An inquiry requires you to work with several different internal teams such as your billing department to clarify a bill and your marketing team to invite the customer to an event
  • You need to contact multiple external vendors or stakeholders such as for quotes or following up on a task they were responsible for
  • A combination of all of the above

By creating linked conversations tied to the original request, Front automatically keeps all conversations grouped together so you can quickly reference all related conversations

MaggieL
Badge

How can I assign a linked conversation?

You would assign linked conversations the same way as any other conversation in Front — by clicking the Assign button at the top right of the conversation and choosing the teammate. Linked conversations are essentially the same as any other email except with the added benefit of automatic linking to the other related conversations.

helena
Userlevel 4
Badge +5

Hi all, sharing the exciting news that linking existing conversations together is now live in Front! This was a highly-requested feature and here’s how it works:

  1. Pull up the existing conversations in Front. They might already be in the same inbox view, or you might need to use the search bar to display them together.
  2. Select multiple conversations you’d like to link together. You can multi-select by pressing the COMMAND key and clicking the conversations.
  3. Select Link conversations and you’ll be prompted to select the original conversation of the group.

 

  1. You’ll see the conversations now linked.

 

Helena, Product Education Lead
vincent

Hi all, sharing the exciting news that linking existing conversations together is now live in Front! This was a highly-requested feature and here’s how it works:

  1. Pull up the existing conversations in Front. They might already be in the same inbox view, or you might need to use the search bar to display them together.
  2. Select multiple conversations you’d like to link together. You can multi-select by pressing the COMMAND key and clicking the conversations.
  3. Select Link conversations and you’ll be prompted to select the original conversation of the group.
  4. You’ll see the conversations now linked.

 

Awesome! Many thanks

paul

Hi all, sharing the exciting news that linking existing conversations together is now live in Front! This was a highly-requested feature and here’s how it works:

  1. Pull up the existing conversations in Front. They might already be in the same inbox view, or you might need to use the search bar to display them together.
  2. Select multiple conversations you’d like to link together. You can multi-select by pressing the COMMAND key and clicking the conversations.
  3. Select Link conversations and you’ll be prompted to select the original conversation of the group.

 

  1. You’ll see the conversations now linked.

 

@helena Is it always required to select multiple conversations? How can this been done for only one conversation as starting point? 
E.g. click on an order conversation, link it to the already existing invoice conversation.

helena
Userlevel 4
Badge +5

Hey @paul, I’m seeing maybe 2 different scenarios you might be asking about so I’ll answer both and you can let me know if I’m misunderstanding anything.

  1. If you don’t have multiple conversations already existing that you want to link, then you would just use one conversation as the starting point and create new conversations from there. From one conversation as a starting point, click the 3 dots on the message (not the 3 dots on the top conversation level) > click Create linked conversation:

My original post has a video that goes more in depth on the process of creating linked conversations from 1 origin. 

  1. If you do have 2 conversations you want to link together, that would classify as “multiple conversations,” so you do indeed need to pull them up on the same screen first in order to link them together. Any time you want to link existing conversations together, you’ll need to pull them up on the same screen first in order to multi-select them. You can do that by searching for a keyword they have in common so that they show up in results, or even use a tag to tag the two and view the tag to see them on the same screen. That way, you can link any two disparate conversations together. 

Does that help?

Helena, Product Education Lead
paul

 

My original post has a video that goes more in depth on the process of creating linked conversations from 1 origin. 

  1. If you do have 2 conversations you want to link together, that would classify as “multiple conversations,” so you do indeed need to pull them up on the same screen first in order to link them together. Any time you want to link existing conversations together, you’ll need to pull them up on the same screen first in order to multi-select them. You can do that by searching for a keyword they have in common so that they show up in results, or even use a tag to tag the two and view the tag to see them on the same screen. That way, you can link any two disparate conversations together. 

Does that help?

@helena Actually yes! I missed the point of “select original conversation”.
The only remaining downside for us is now that we still need to search for the messages first to link them in step 2. Would be handy if this would be possible from menu. “link to other original conversation” or so.

Thanks a lot!

helena
Userlevel 4
Badge +5

@paul Yes, the searching is a necessary step if the conversations aren’t already showing in the same inbox/view. If the conversations can’t be pulled up in one search, you could tag the various conversations and view the tag to display them all together. If you have a specific idea on how this could be improved in the user experience, please do submit that to our ideas portal! Our product team regularly reviews it.

Helena, Product Education Lead

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