# Conversations and replies

> How visitors see your answers in Messenger, and when they are emailed.

## What the visitor does

1. The visitor opens Messenger and writes a message. Each new message opens a **new ticket** (channel **Messenger**).
2. After sending, they see that the message arrived. If they are still on the page when you answer, they see your answer in the same window. Otherwise it arrives by email.
3. Messenger's home shows **Your conversations** with the latest one. **See all** lists every conversation started in this browser, with its status: **Open**, **Solved** or **Closed**.
4. In a conversation, the visitor can read your answers, download files and write back.

The browser remembers the visitor's name and email after the first message. The new-message screen then says *"Writing as …"* with a **Not you?** link, which forgets the name, the email and the conversations on this device.

## What your team does

You answer Messenger tickets like any other ticket. A **Reply** on a Messenger ticket goes to Messenger first:

- If the visitor sees it in Messenger, it is not emailed. The ticket shows *"Seen in Messenger"* under the reply.
- If they don't see it within the delay you set (default **5 minutes**), it is emailed to them. Until then the ticket shows *"Emails at … if not seen"*.

"Seen" means the visitor had that conversation open on screen. Set the delay under [Ticket rules](/support/ticket-rules/#messenger-replies) (1–60 minutes).

Internal notes are never shown in Messenger.

## Replies by email

When a visitor answers your email, the reply goes into the same ticket, as with any support email. In Messenger, a message that came in by email shows as *"Replied by email"* with its time, without its text.

## Solved and closed tickets

- A visitor's message on a **Solved** ticket reopens it.
- A message on a **Closed** ticket opens a follow-up ticket. Messenger then shows the follow-up; the old conversation continues by email.

## How long the list lasts

The list lives in the visitor's browser: up to 20 conversations, on that browser only. Another browser or device sees none of them, and clearing the browser's data or clicking **Not you?** removes them. The ticket and the email conversation are not affected.

If the visitor doesn't come back to a page with Messenger in that browser for 180 days, the list is cleared. A ticket that is merged into another ticket drops out too.

:::note[Coming later]
Recognising signed-in users, so they see their conversations on every device.
:::