# Assigning conversations to agents Section: Tidio Features Description: Join chats from Unassigned, reassign one conversation or several at once to an agent or a department, and where automatic assignment fits in. Verified against Tidio panel 12.304.0 Last updated: 2026-10-30 Source: https://help.tidio.com/articles/assigning-conversations/ Tidio's live chat feature ensures smooth chat handling by assigning conversations to agents. In this article, we'll explore how chat conversations are initially assigned to agents and how you can easily reassign chats to different agents as needed. This functionality streamlines chat management and ensures efficient customer support. **In this article, you'll learn:** - [How to assign a chat to yourself]() - [How to reassign a chat to another agent]() - [How to reassign several conversations or tickets at once]() - [How to assign chats automatically]() [Video]() Silent walkthrough. Reassign several conversations at once. Open the Inbox on My open. Hover the first conversation's avatar and tick the checkbox; tick two more. Click the Reassign icon in the bar at the top of the list. Type a teammate's name in the Assign to... search and click it. Open one of the moved conversations and click the Assignee label to show the new assignee and the list. ## Assigning a chat to yourself A chat is assigned to any agent who first picks it up from the **Unassigned** folder: ![The "Unassigned" folder contains one new live chat asking "Can I talk to someone?".]() ... and clicks on the blue **Join conversation** button: ![The conversation panel has a "Join conversation" button beside "Add internal note", with Enter offered as a keyboard shortcut.]() You can also join the conversation by clicking on the popup/push notification sent from your web browser (or operating system), or by enabling the [**automatic chat assignment**]() feature. Once an agent is assigned to a chat, notifications related to that chat will only be sent to that specific agent, ensuring uninterrupted communication between the agent and the visitor. ## Re-assigning a chat to another agent Agents have the ability to transfer a chat to other agents using the **Assign** option (called **Reassign** outside the **Unassigned** folder). You can access this option by clicking on the three dots menu located next to the conversation. The **Assign to...** panel will open, where you can search for an agent (or a department) and click on their name: ![The conversation three-dot menu is circled, with "Assign" highlighted below "Select".]() In the upper-left of the conversation itself, you can also see the **Assignee** label - which shows the agent who's currently assigned to the conversation. By clicking on it, you can **re-assign** the conversation to someone else (or to a department, if you use Departments). The list shows each agent's photo and name, with **(You)** next to your own name: ![A conversation open in the Inbox with the Assignee label in the top bar clicked, and its list open: a Departments group and an Agents group with each agent's photo and name, "(You)" next to the current agent, and no online or offline status]() You can also open the **Assign to...** panel with a keyboard shortcut: Ctrl + Shift + A (Cmd + Shift + A on a Mac). If you reassign a conversation that's already solved, it will be reopened for the new assignee. This flexibility allows an efficient delegation and ensures that chats are seamlessly transferred to the most suitable agent or department. Any assignments or transfers will be described (along with timestamps) in the conversation itself as well, for easier tracking: ![The conversation history includes timestamped notices that an agent joined and then transferred the conversation to another agent.]() 💡 **Please note:** **Departments** are available on the **Plus** plan and above, and they appear in the list once you have more than one department. To learn more, read our article about [enabling Departments in Tidio](). ## Reassigning several conversations or tickets at once Need to hand over a whole batch of chats - for example, when a teammate's shift ends? You can reassign several conversations in one go. Hover your cursor over a conversation in the list, and tick the checkbox that appears in place of the visitor's avatar (or use **Select** in the conversation's three dots menu). Select all the conversations you need, and click on the **Reassign** icon in the bar at the top of the list: ![The My open folder with three conversations ticked, the bar at the top of the list showing "3 selected" and the Mark as unread, Solve, Reassign and Delete icons, with the cursor on Reassign and its tooltip showing]() The same **Assign to...** panel will open - pick an agent or a department, and all the selected conversations will be transferred. Naturally, the same works for tickets: select them in a ticket folder or view, and use the **Reassign** icon in the bar at the top of the list. For tickets, you can also choose **Unassigned**, to send them back to the **Unassigned** folder: ![The Tickets My open folder with two tickets ticked, and the Assign to... panel open with its search field, Unassigned at the top, then the Departments and Agents groups]() ## Automatic chat assignment You also have the option to decide whether your chats are assigned manually (which is the default, described above), or automatically - immediately when they arrive in your Tidio inbox. Please [see this guide]() for more details on these options. Automatic chat assignment is available on the **Growth** plan and above.