Send Message Without conversation being set to "Waiting on Customer" state | Community
Skip to main content
Question

Send Message Without conversation being set to "Waiting on Customer" state

  • January 12, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 81 views
W

We are sending messages using Intercom’s REST API and after completing a task on our platform side, we would like to inform the customer that:

“The team will get back to you on this. Our usual reply time is 1 day. You'll get replies here and to email@example.com.” (sent from William’s Admin ID)

However, this causes an unintended side-effect with our auto-assignment rules:

Because Intercom treats this as a teammate reply, when the auto-assignment occurs (balanced assignment). We auto-assign conversations based on “waiting longest”, so this causes these conversations to be de-prioritised and skipped, and they will only be picked up again if the customer replies.

As a workaround, we currently:

  • Do not send a message to the customer, and instead

  • Use the API to unassign the conversation and move it into a manually monitored inbox where it auto-assigned and picked up.

This avoids breaking the assignment logic, but it leaves the customer confused because they receive no acknowledgement that we are working on their request.

What we have tried:

We have tried sending it on behalf of Intercom’s bot (FIN) but this is confusing to the customer who receives a message first from a teammate (i.e. William), then from FIN, then from another teammate - a poor user experience.

What we would like to achieve is:

  • Send an acknowledgement to the customer, without making Intercom treat the conversation as “waiting on customer” or removing it from the assignment queue.

Do you have any recommendations on how to mitigate this, either:

  • via the Intercom API  or

  • via workflows?

Any guidance would be appreciated.


Kind regards,
William

1 reply

D
Intercom Team
Forum|alt.badge.img
  • Dara KIntercom Team
  • Intercom Team
  • January 30, 2026

Hey ​​​​​@William Powell. 

A direct admin reply via the REST API sets the conversation’s waiting_since to null (the user is no longer “waiting”), so Balanced assignment deprioritizes it when you sort by Waiting since. This is why these get skipped until the customer replies again.

To acknowledge customers without breaking assignment priority, send the acknowledgement as a bot/automation message via a Workflow. Bot replies do not affect Waiting since, so the conversation stays in the queue and remains eligible for auto‑assignment based on your prioritization rules.

  • Admin replies reset Waiting since (waiting_since becomes null), which means “the last reply is from a teammate (not waiting).” Those conversations are sorted last when your prioritization includes Waiting since, so Balanced assignment assigns others first.
  • By contrast, bot/automation replies do not change Waiting since, so the customer is still considered to be waiting for a teammate reply and the conversation remains high in the queue if you sort by Waiting since.

 

Ways to get around this:

1) Use Workflows to send the acknowledgement (recommended)

  • Send the acknowledgement as an automation/bot message from a Workflow, not as an admin reply. Bot replies don’t affect Waiting since, so the conversation stays prioritized for assignment as intended.
  • How to wire it up:
    • Trigger immediately when your platform signals “task complete.” You can do this by building a Workflow path that waits for your signal (e.g., a Wait for webhook step), then “Send a message” to the customer with your acknowledgement text. This produces a single bot message, avoids switching authors (no teammate → FIN → teammate), and preserves Waiting since.
    • Optional: Also “Mark conversation as Priority” in the same Workflow so these acknowledgements rise even higher if your Balanced assignment sorting puts Priority above Waiting since.

  • If you want a safety‑net instead of an immediate signal, you can use the “Prioritize conversations waiting for a teammate reply” template to automatically apologize and boost priority when a teammate hasn’t replied after X time (e.g., 1 day). This also sends an automated message and marks the conversation as Priority, improving assignment order without changing Waiting since.

  • Copy suggestion you can use in the Workflow’s “Send a message” step: “Thanks for your message — our team is on it. Our usual reply time is about 1 day. You’ll see our replies here and at your email on file.”

2) If you must send via the REST API

  • Be aware a teammate/admin reply will clear Waiting since and push the conversation to the back when you sort by Waiting since, that is expected system behaviour.
  • To mitigate the deprioritization:
    • Pair the admin reply with a Priority flag (via Workflow action or your process) and configure Balanced assignment so Priority is ranked ahead of Waiting since. Priority conversations are assigned first, regardless of Waiting since, which offsets the side‑effect of an admin reply.
Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement