--- title: "Configure Messaging Routing Settings" slug: "configure-messaging-routing-settings-1" description: "With Routing Settings, Administrators can fine-tune how many Messaging Customers an Agent should handle at a time in Gladly. Learn more." updated: 2026-04-22T19:50:53Z published: 2026-04-22T19:50:53Z stale: true --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.gladly.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Configure Messaging Routing Settings | **REQUIRED USER ROLE** Administrator | **PERMISSION OVERVIEW** [View permissions by role](https://help.gladly.com/docs/managing-users-and-roles#roles-and-responsibilities) | | --- | --- | Because Agents can — and often do — handle more than one Messaging Customer at a time, Gladly defaults to routing more than one chat, SMS, or social messaging Contact to an Agent at any given time. Administrators can fine-tune just how many Messaging Customers an Agent should handle at a time and the time period between routing to ensure their Agents work at their optimal pace and capacity. 1. Click ![](https://cdn.us.document360.io/7047b671-c4f2-4df0-bb0a-b9b511fd2452/Images/Documentation/hamburger-menu-icon(2).svg) on the top left corner of the screen. 2. Click **Settings**. 3. Under the **Agent Experience** category, click **Conversation Workflow**. 4. Find the **Messaging**section (which controls chat, SMS, and all social Channels) and edit the following: ![Messaging settings for agents, including capacity limits and notification previews.](https://cdn.us.document360.io/7047b671-c4f2-4df0-bb0a-b9b511fd2452/Images/Documentation/messaging_converation-workflow_setting.png) - [**Standard messaging capacity per Agent**](/product-docs/docs/configure-messaging-routing-settings#standard-and-maximum-messaging-capacity-per-agent)**–** Enter the number of messages Agents can automatically receive without clicking **Next**. - [**Maximum messaging capacity per Agent**](/product-docs/docs/configure-messaging-routing-settings#maximum)**–**Enter the maximum number of messages beyond the standard messaging capacity Agents can receive by clicking **Next**. - [**Next message routing delay (seconds)**](/product-docs/docs/configure-messaging-routing-settings#next-message-routing-delay)**–**Enter the time (in seconds) an Agent has upon missing/declining an incoming Messaging Customer before a new one is routed to them. - [**Same agent assignment time limit (minutes)**](/product-docs/docs/configure-messaging-routing-settings#same-agent-assignment-time-limit)**–**Enter (in minutes) how long Customer replies from a previous message are routed to the same Agent. This setting also dictates how long before a chat automatically ends (but not close) when a Customer stops responding. - [**Inbound message assignment**](https://help.gladly.com/docs/configure-messaging-routing-settings#allow-agents-to-acceptdecline-incoming-message)**–** If checked, allows Agents to accept/decline new messages through a notification banner that is being routed to them. Otherwise, messaging requests are routed automatically and the Customer is added to their My Customers list without any notification. - [**Show notification preview**](/product-docs/docs/configure-messaging-routing-settings#show-preview-of-an-incoming-message)**–**For Messaging Customers already assigned to Agents, if this notification feature is activated, it allows Agents to see a preview of a new incoming message so Agents can get a quick idea of what the incoming request is about. ## Standard and maximum messaging capacity per Agent The capacity setting applies to all Messaging Channels, including chat, SMS, and social Messaging Channels (e.g., Instagram Messaging, Facebook Messenger, etc.) ### How capacity is set Suppose you enter a standard messaging capacity of three. This means Agents can either handle: - Three chat sessions - Three SMS sessions - Two chats + One SMS session - One chat + One SMS + One Facebook session The above applies to both standard and maximum capacity settings. > [!NOTE] > Phone call capacity > > Phone call capacity is always one and is independent of the messaging capacity limits. If an Agent is at max messaging capacity but is also available to receive phone calls, an incoming phone call will still route to the Agent. #### How Team-level overrides interact with your organization’s default The Standard and Maximum messaging capacity values above are the organization defaults, set in Conversation Workflow. Administrators can also set concurrency overrides at the Team level, and those overrides don't always behave the way you might expect: - If an Agent is a member of one or more Teams with concurrency overrides set, Gladly uses the highest Standard and Maximum values across those Teams — even if that highest value is lower than the organization default. The org default is ignored in this case. - If an Agent is a member of Teams, but none of those Teams have concurrency overrides set, Gladly falls back to the organization default. > [!NOTE] > Consider the following example > > - The organization’s default Standard capacity = 5. > - Agent is on Team A (Standard = 2) and Team B (Standard = 3). > - Gladly routes up to 3 Messaging Customers to the Agent (the highest Team value), not 5. > - If neither Team A nor Team B had overrides set, the Agent would receive up to 5 (the org default). ### Standard By****default, Gladly automatically routes up to three****messaging****Customers to an Agent at any time. You do, however, have the option to configure your own capacity. Assuming the **Standard Messaging Capacity Per Agent**is set to three, once the Agent is routed those initial three Messaging Customers, Gladly will stop routing any new messages to that Agent **until/unless**: - An active Messaging session has ended, after which new Messaging Customer(s) will be routed to the Agent until the Agent is once again handling three Messaging Customers. - The Agent clicks **Next** (via the standalone **Next** button to the right of the Channel Availability Controls or the **Close & Next** button) to be routed a new Customer, and the next Customer in the queue is reaching out over one of the Messaging Channels. In other words, Agents can override the minimum concurrency if they would like to handle more messages. Clicking **Next**allows Agents to request more Messaging Customers than what's in the **Standard Messaging Capacity Per Agent** field. Still, they won't be allowed to exceed the number set in the **Maximum Messaging Capacity per Agent** field. ### Maximum While Gladly automatically routes up to the number of Messaging Customers set out in the **Standard Messaging Capacity Per Agent** field, Agents can manually request more Messaging Customers if they feel they have the capacity to help more Customers. They can do that by clicking **Next** if the next Customer in the queue reaches out over a Messaging Channel. Agents will see an [error](https://help.gladly.com/docs/why-am-i-getting-errors-when-requesting-more-customers-to-help) if they try requesting additional Messaging Customers past this value. ## Next message routing delay Besides configuring the number of Messaging Customers an Agent should handle, another important element of an Agent's workflow is how long Gladly should wait before routing the next Messaging Customer. Too fast and Agents might feel overwhelmed, but with too long a gap, your Agents may be left twiddling their thumbs. By default, Gladly waits 20 seconds after routing one Messaging Customer before routing another to give Agents time to introduce themselves to the Customer and familiarize themselves with their issue and history. You can, however, change the duration. ## Same agent assignment time limit When an Agent sends a reply to a Customer, this is the length of time replies from the Customer are routed to the same Agent. Otherwise, replies are routed to the next available Agent after the time configured has passed. For example, suppose the time is set to 60 minutes. If an Agent sends a reply, which starts the 60-minute countdown, and the Customer replies in 70 minutes, the reply routes to the next available Agent instead of the Agent who sent the last message. - The Agent must be [available in the Messaging Channel](https://help.gladly.com/docs/set-your-channel-availability-to-help-customers#h-messaging) to be routed replies. - This setting also controls how long before a Messaging session automatically ends (but not close) when a Customer stops responding. - Messaging Conversations that have auto-ended free-up capacity to receive more Messaging Customers based on the [standard messaging capacity](https://help.gladly.com/docs/configure-messaging-routing-settings#standard-and-maximum-messaging-capacity-per-agent) and up to the [maximum number of Messaging Customers](https://help.gladly.com/docs/configure-messaging-routing-settings#maximum) an Agent can have by Clicking **Next**. ## Allow Agents to accept/decline incoming message Check the box next to **Inbound message assignment** if you'd like Agents to be able to accept/decline work that is being routed to them. If this is deactivated, Agents are automatically assigned work items based on your capacity settings. ![Incoming message from Logan Webb asking about shipping policy details.](https://cdn.us.document360.io/7047b671-c4f2-4df0-bb0a-b9b511fd2452/Images/Documentation/decline accept (1).png) ## Show preview of an incoming message Check the box next to **Notification banner preview** if you'd like Agents to see a preview of an incoming message through the green notification banner. ![Incoming message from Logan Webb asking about shipping policy details.](https://cdn.us.document360.io/7047b671-c4f2-4df0-bb0a-b9b511fd2452/Images/Documentation/body of banner (1).png) Suppose you activate this feature and you find that seeing a preview of the request influences Agents' decision of accepting/declining incoming Customer requests. In that case, we suggest you deactivate the feature. *Contact* or *Contacts* (with a capital "C") is a *phone call* , *messaging session*, *email*, or *voicemail*. Contact(s) can be defined as an Inbound (started by the Customer) or Outbound (started by Agents) activity. A *Contact* can contain one or multiple messages (individual chat messages, SMSes, etc.) and is part of a Conversation.