---
title: "What is a Conversation?"
slug: "what-is-a-conversation"
description: "You can see a Customer's entire Conversation history no matter what Channel they use to contact you. All of your interactions exist in a single place."
updated: 2025-02-06T21:40:38Z
published: 2025-02-06T21:40:38Z
---

> ## 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.

# What is a Conversation?

In Gladly, you can see a Customer's entire Conversation history no matter what Channel they use to contact you. All of your interactions with the Customer exist in a single Conversation Timeline. Having every interaction and Conversation with a Customer in one place provides more context, less need for your Customer to repeat themselves, and provides quicker responses.

Conversations provide a more natural way of handling communication as Conversations always provide a holistic view of who the Customer is and the Channels they use to communicate, along with quickly seeing past Conversations.

![Email correspondence regarding a damaged item and its replacement details.](https://cdn.us.document360.io/7047b671-c4f2-4df0-bb0a-b9b511fd2452/Images/Documentation/conversations_whatis.webp)

Here are other things to take note of regarding Conversations:

- A Conversation can span across multiple Channels.
- A Conversation can be found in the [Conversation Timeline](https://help.gladly.com/docs/what-is-a-customer-profile). Each Conversation is [separated by Topic](/docs/how-are-conversations-separated-in-the-conversation-timeline).
- A Conversation stays in a single Inbox and Agent at a time.
- A Conversation can have multiple Contacts across different Channels.
- A Conversation may go through a series of [statuses](/docs/conversation-status-new-open-waiting-closed):
  - **New** **–** Unassigned Contacts and waiting to be routed to an Agent
  - **Open** **–** Assigned to an Agent
  - **Waiting** **–** All Contacts have ended, but the Conversation has not been closed. For example, Conversations marked as [No Reply Needed](https://help.gladly.com/docs/mark-a-conversation-as-no-reply-needed).
  - **Closed –**Solved and require no further action. It can be reopened if a Customer responds to a closed conversation within a specified time window.
    - **Note –** Agents see the list of open Customer Conversations in their My Customer list. Team Managers and Administrators can view Conversations by status.

Conversations in Gladly is a concept that is much different from the traditional concept of 'tickets' or 'cases.' Some of the other key differentiators to take note of are:

- Customers are never assigned a 'case/ticket number" in Gladly.
- A new Conversation is never opened every time a Customer contacts you (unlike cases/tickets).
- Conversations can cross multiple Channels (e.g., SMS, Chat, Voice, etc.) where cases/tickets are typically restricted to the type of Inbound Channel used. This omnichannel capability in a Conversation environment allows you to quickly meet your Customers when and where they want to be met.
- A Customer can only have one Conversation open at any given time, preventing request duplication.

## What a Conversation is made up of

Conversations are comprised of [Contacts](https://help.gladly.com/docs/glossary-and-key-concepts#contacts), [Tasks](https://help.gladly.com/docs/what-is-a-task), and the entire history of interactions with the Customer within the [Conversation Timeline](https://help.gladly.com/docs/what-is-a-customer-profile).

*Channel*

or

*Channels*

refers to the communication method used to communicate with Customers. Gladly supports the following Channels:

- Voice/IVR
- Email
- Chat (via Glad App)
- SMS/MMS
- Social Messaging: Facebook Messenger, Instagram Messaging, Whatsapp

Agents use the availability controls to receive Customers contacting in through these Channels.

![](https://connect.gladly.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Availability-Channel.png)