What Do The Conversation Statuses Mean and How Can I Permanently Delete Conversations?

This is a question we get frequently from our customers!

In short, Drift does not allow conversations to be deleted. This is because Drift doesn't want to lose any activity with your contacts and/or leads. Instead of deleting conversations, Drift utilizes Conversation Statuses to help organize your chats.

In this doc, we'll cover

• conversation statuses
• filtering conversations
• bulk closing conversations
• conversation deletion
• Setting Conversation Statuses via the Flow Builder
• FAQs and related reading

Conversation statuses and the ability to change them is available on all Drift plans.

Conversation Statuses and How to Change Them

All inboxes in Drift come with three conversation statuses - open, pending, and closed.

To change the status of a conversation, select the conversation in the conversation view and then click the current status in the top right corner of the composer, and select the new status.

All conversation updates will be reflected in your chat as seen below.

What Each Status Means

Open

These are your active, ongoing chats. Keep your conversation view here to declutter your chats and to make sure you don't miss any messages. If you close out a chat and your site visitor chats back in, this will re-open the conversation again. 

Closed

So, here's what you can do for those conversations that you would otherwise want to delete! When Closed, the conversation will essentially be archived.

To close multiple conversations at the same time or bulk-close, check the box next to Conversation Status and click "Close selected" when prompted. Note: you can close up to 25 conversations at one time.

Here's what it will look like:

Pending

At Drift, we utilize this space for conversations where we need extra time to answer their questions. For example, if we're waiting on a specific team mate to jump into a conversation but they're in a meeting ... status Pending ✅

This helps us stay organized with our Open conversations, but will not Close an unfinished conversation - we never want to leave our customers hanging! Make sure to close the conversation once completed to de-clutter your inbox. 

All

The "All" status is just that - all conversations. They're organized newest (top) to oldest (bottom) by default.

Settings Conversation Statuses via the Flow Builder:

In building your bot playbooks, you also have the ability to have your bot set the conversation status.  To do this, simply click the "Conversations Status" box at the end of your bot flow.  From here you can choose to Keep the conversation open, Auto-close the conversation, and Permanently close conversations.

For further information on building out your bot playbooks, check out our help doc here.

FAQs

If I close conversations at the goal level, do I also need to close the entire flow at the bottom?

No. If you've set up your Goal to auto-close conversation, you do not have to set your bot to close the conversation again. If your site visitor responds and re-opens the chat, this conversation is now a live chat and will need to be manually closed. 

How do I see my previous conversations?

Assuming that you've closed your past conversations, you can find them by switching your conversation view to Closed status. (Scroll up if you need a reminder on how to do this 😎) This will help you reference any questions, customers, and conversations you had.

How does this affect my Salesforce/HubSpot integration? 

Many of our integrations such as Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zapier are built to sync upon conversation-close. This is so that your CRM gets all the information collected from your chat! If you're not seeing your most recent conversation or contact in your CRM account, make sure that the conversation was closed (and that you captured their email). 

Related Reading

Learn more about various Drift conversation features 👉🏼

Conversation Stats, Reporting, and Export

How to Add Participants to a Conversation 

What Your Conversation View Looks Like Based on Your Plan

Creating Inboxes for Conversations 

Still stuck? Email us at support@drift.com. Not using Drift yet? Get your free account here.