Guide
The Inbox
Every conversation — live chat and email — lands in one inbox. Here's how to work through it quickly and keep nothing from slipping through.
Three statuses
Every conversation is in one of three states. Change the status from the conversation sidebar.
Open
Needs attention. New conversations start here, and replies from customers reopen closed ones.
Pending
You're waiting on something — usually a reply from the customer or info from your team.
Closed
Done and dusted. If the customer writes again, the conversation comes back automatically.
Four priorities
Set a priority so the team knows what to grab first.
Your toolkit
Everything you can do with a conversation.
Start a new conversation
Reach out first — click "New conversation" above the conversation list, pick which channel to send from, type or pick the recipient, add a subject and your message, and Sonny starts a brand-new email thread. When the customer replies it lands right back in this inbox.
Reply
Write rich replies with bold, italics, lists, links, text colour, highlight, fonts, emojis 🎉, and inline images. Drop in dynamic fields like {{contact_first_name}} to personalize, and your email signature is appended automatically. Chat replies reach the visitor instantly; email replies go to their inbox. You can see when a visitor is typing, and when a teammate is already composing, so you never answer twice.
Internal notes
Switch the composer to note mode to leave a private message for your team — the customer never sees it. Type @ to mention a teammate (the note shows their name, so everyone knows who's meant) and they get a notification.
Attachments
Send and receive files up to 25 MB each, in chat and email conversations alike. Click any image to open a full-size preview you can zoom into and download.
Assignment
Give a conversation to a specific person or a whole team from the sidebar. Channels can also assign new conversations automatically, one by one in turn (round robin).
Tags
Add color-coded tags like "bug" or "billing" to keep things organized. Tags show up in reporting too, so you can see what customers ask about most.
Snooze
Hide a conversation until later: 1 hour, 4 hours, tomorrow at 9am, next Monday at 9am, a time you pick — or until the customer replies. It pops back into the inbox when the time comes.
Search and filters
Search across all your conversations from the inbox, and filter the list by status, priority, assignee, type (chat or email), channel, or tag to find exactly what you need.
Bulk actions
Select several conversations at once to assign them, change their status or priority, add and remove tags, or move them to Trash — all in one go.
Trash & delete
Move conversations you're done with to Trash to clear your inbox. They're never lost — restore any time, and if a customer replies the conversation comes back automatically. Owners and admins can permanently delete when needed.
Email a transcript
From the conversation sidebar, send a full copy of the conversation by email — handy for records or for looping someone in.
Block a troublesome visitor
In a chat conversation, open the ⋯ menu in the sidebar and choose "Block visitor IP". That visitor can't send any more chat messages from that address.
Start a new conversation
Most conversations start when a customer messages you — but sometimes you need to reach out first. Click New conversation above the conversation list to open the composer.
Choose who it's from
The From field lists your email channels (e.g. Support, Sales). Pick the one you want the customer to see and reply to.
Pick or type the recipient
Start typing in the To field. Sonny matches an existing contact as you type — or, if it's someone new, just type their full email address and Sonny creates the contact for you.
Write and send
Add a subject and your message, then send. Sonny creates the conversation in your inbox and emails the customer. Their reply threads straight back into the same conversation.
Keyboard shortcuts
Open the command palette with ⌘K (Ctrl K on Windows) to search and jump to any conversation without touching the mouse.
| ⌘ K | Open the command palette |
The conversation sidebar
Next to every conversation you'll find the customer's details: their contact info, custom fields, past conversations, the pages they visited on your site, their satisfaction rating, and a full history of every change to the conversation. It's your cheat sheet for context before you reply.
Related docs
Trash & Deleting
Move conversations to Trash, restore them, and permanently delete — with auto-restore when a customer replies.
Saved Replies
Create reusable templates to respond faster.
Contacts
Manage your contact list with tags, merging, and auto-creation.
Team Management
Invite members, assign roles, and manage permissions.