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Open, Pending, Queued, Expired

Conversations move through several states. In the Unified Inbox, the words Open, Pending, Queued, and Expired mean different things — and they appear in different places.

For customer-care windows and when threads expire, see Customer Care Windows.

Quick Reference​

TermAgent meaningWhere you see it
OpenActive thread; eligible for Inbox tabsAll Inbox tabs (Assigned, Queued, Unread, etc.)
PendingWaiting for the customer to reply (you or the bot spoke last)Pending label on conversation rows
QueuedHeld because no agent was available (or escalation queued it)Queued tab · orange Queued label · Take It / DeQueue
ExpiredCustomer-care window closedNot in Inbox tabs — use Conversations (Working Expired Threads)

There is no agent action to Close a WhatsApp or Instagram conversation. Those threads become Expired automatically when the customer-care window ends. Web threads can be closed with End chat — see Web Threads in the Inbox.

Open​

Open means the conversation is still active. Inbox tabs only list open threads — Expired conversations are excluded automatically.

All Inbox tabs (Assigned, Queued, Unread, Bot, Agent, Lists, Spam) show open conversations only.

Pending​

Pending does not mean “waiting in a queue.” It means the last message in the thread was from your side (bot or agent) and you are waiting for the customer to reply.

The list shows a Pending label when the last message was from your team (bot or agent) and you are waiting for the customer to reply.

Do Not Confuse With Conversations Page “Pending”​

The Conversations ops table has a filter chip Pending that uses a different meaning than the Inbox row label. In practice that chip often matches no rows.

Surface“Pending” means
Inbox list rowCustomer has not replied since bot/agent last spoke
Conversations filter chipStored database filter (usually empty — do not rely on it)

Teach agents the Inbox meaning. Chapter 5 will document the Conversations pitfall in detail.

Queued​

Queued conversations are in the conversation queue — typically because no agent was online when escalation or routing needed a human.

Where to Find Them​

  • Sidebar Inbox → Queued (/inbox/queued)
  • Tab header: Queued with a count in parentheses (e.g. Queued (3))
  • Row meta: orange Queued text
  • Footer line starting with Queued: and a short reason — e.g. Queued: No agent available for escalation

Default queue reasons include variations of No agent available when escalation could not assign a human immediately.

Actions​

On a queued row:

ButtonWhen shownWhat it does
Take ItConversation not yet assigned to an agentAssign the queued thread to you
DeQueueConversation already has an agent_idRemove from queue (admin/supervisor workflows)

Buttons use the exact labels Take It and DeQueue.

If your team is stuck in queue, check Your Availability — agents set to Offline or Busy may not receive new work.

Expired​

Expired means the customer-care window closed (WhatsApp default 24 hours after the last customer message; Instagram 7 days — see spec chapter 9).

Effects agents care about:

  • Thread drops out of Inbox tabs (only open rows load)
  • List row assignment caption can show Expired if such a row appeared elsewhere
  • WhatsApp: composer free text is UI-blocked; use Utility templates or internal notes (chapter 9)

Find expired threads on Conversations (/conversations), not under Inbox.

The ops table shows an Expired badge on threads whose customer-care window has closed (including some legacy rows labelled resolved in older data).

Other Row Labels​

In the same meta line as Pending / Queued:

LabelMeaning
WhatsApp / InstagramChannel (Filter by Channel)
Agent nameAssigned human
BotNo agent_id — bot-handled
ExpiredStored status expired (rare in Inbox lists)

Unread counts appear as a red badge when the thread has unread customer messages (not on spam/redacted rows).

Agents Cannot “Close” a Chat​

Do not document a Close conversation action. There is no Inbox button for it. Expiry is automatic.

Next Steps​