Your inbox called; it wants less clutter

Inbox full of ghosts? Let Auto-Close do the haunting.

Ever stared at your support inbox wondering why half the chats are just… sitting there? No reply, no closure, just hanging like unread messages from a advertising company.

Let’s fix that.

With Auto-Close, you can set a timer to close inactive conversations automatically. It keeps your inbox clean and helps your team stay focused on what matters.

What is Auto-Close? 

Think of it like the support team’s version of putting the dishes away after dinner.

When a conversation goes quiet (no response from the customer), Auto-Close steps in, waits for a set time, and wraps it up for you. You decide how long is “too long.” Could be 10 minutes. Could be 24 hours. Either way, once the clock runs out, Auto-Close quietly shuts the door. No mess. Just a cleaner inbox.

Why use Auto-Close?  

Save your team’s time. No more manually closing chats that have gone cold.

Set expectations. A clear close message shows customers you’re not ignoring them, you’re just staying efficient.

Stay compliant. Platforms like WhatsApp only allow replies within 24 hours. Auto-close helps you stick to the rules.

Spot trends. Auto-closed chats give you insights into where customers drop off.

Learn more: Auto-Close Conversations (Bot & Agent)

Auto-Close isn’t a one-size-fits-all feature.

You can adapt to the platform, the agent, and even the bot.

Let’s break it down:

You’ve got a WhatsApp chat going. The customer asks something, and your agent replies. But then… silence. You’ve set the auto-close timer to 30 minutes. The countdown begins. If the customer doesn’t respond by then, poof! The conversation closes.

For bots, the clock starts as soon as they send a message. You can choose from presets like 5, 10, 15 minutes or 24 hours. If the user doesn’t reply, the bot closes the chat.

Different businesses, different beats.

Let’s say you run:

• An e-commerce store: Sometimes it's clear people want quick answers to specific questions like “Where’s my order?” or “What’s your return policy?” Use short timers like 5–10 minutes in these cases to keep your queue fresh.
  
• A SaaS company or IT support desk: Users might need time to try your suggestions. Give them breathing room with timers between 30–60 minutes.
  
• A healthcare or financial service: The stakes are higher here. A customer might pause mid-chat to check a report or talk to someone else. Use conservative timers, 60 minutes or more, and send occasional re-engagement messages like, “Still there? We’re here to help.” 

You’ve got the feature. Now make it work smarter.

• Keep WhatsApp chats within the 24-hour window.
  
• Use short timers for FAQs, longer ones when handling complex questions.
  
• Always give a gentle nudge before closing: “We’ll close this chat in 10 minutes. Reply to keep it going!”
  
• Review your auto-closed chats regularly. You might spot patterns like when people usually drop off, or which agents get longer pauses.
  

FAQ time

​

Can agents override auto-close?

Absolutely. Closed chats can be reopened anytime from the Closed section.

What if I reply just before the chat auto-closes?

The timer resets! The chat stays open as long as the conversation is active.

Can I set different timers for each channel?

Yes. WhatsApp, Messenger, LINE; you can set up timers for each to match their rules.

What happens if a chat is manually turned into a ticket before auto-close?

Let’s say a customer chats with you, and you manually convert it to a ticket before auto-close kicks in. That conversation becomes part of a new ticket. When auto-close runs later, it closes the chat thread, not the new ticket. The chat and ticket are now separate.

   

Let’s hear from you  

Do you have a sweet spot for your timers? Or a clever workaround your team uses? Maybe a bot trick that saved the day?

Share your Auto-Close success stories (or disasters turned into lessons) in the comments.

Your tweak might just be someone else’s "aha!” moment.

• Topic Participants

• Raj R

  

• Sticky Posts

• Zoho Desk Partners with Microsoft's M365 Copilot for seamless customer service experiences

  Hello Zoho Desk users, We are happy to announce that Zoho Desk has partnered with Microsoft's M365 to empower customer service teams with enhanced capabilities and seamless experiences for agents. Microsoft announced their partnership during their keynote

• WhatsApp pricing changes: Pay per message starting July 1, 2025

  Starting July 1, 2025, WhatsApp is shifting from conversation-based pricing to per-message billing. That means every business-initiated message you send will count. Not just the first one in a 24-hour window. Pricing updates on the WhatsApp Business Platform

• Live Webinar - Work smarter with Zoho Desk and Zoho Workplace integration

  Hello customers! Zoho Desk and Zoho Workplace are coming together for a webinar on 14th May, 2024. Zoho Workplace is a suite of productivity apps for email, chat, docs, calls, and more at one single place. Zoho Desk is closely integrated with a few tools

• Apple iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 updates for Zoho Desk users

  Hello Zoho Desk users! Apple recently announced the release of iOS 17 and iPad OS 17. These latest OS updates will help you stay productive and efficient, through interactive and seamless user experiences. Zoho Desk has incorporated the updates to help

• Zoho Desk Cheat Sheet For The Year-End

  Check out these Zoho Desk best practices to end this year on a high and have a great one ahead! #1 Set Business (Holiday) Hours - If you have limited working hours, please make sure you restrict your business hours or set them as holidays for the coming days. Let your customers know when you will, and won't, be available. #2 Update the Annual Holiday List - Check the holidays for the new year and update the holiday schedule. Usually, holidays from the current year will be carried over for the next

• Recent Topics

• Automatically CC an address using Zoho CRM Email Templates

  Hi all - have searched but can't see a definitive answer. We have built multiple email templates in CRM. Every time we send this we want it to CC a particular address (the same address for every email sent) so that it populates the reply back into our

• Unable to Send Different Email Templates for Different Documents in Zoho Sign

  Hello Zoho Community, I am facing a limitation with Zoho Sign regarding email notifications sent to customers when a document is sent for signing. Currently, whenever I send any template/document for signing, the email notification that goes to the customer

• Reminder needs 0 minute choice

  I most use 0 minute reminders.  Every other calender service has this choice.  If I create an event in my Android calendar with 0 minute reminder it will change to 5 minute.  Please ad 0 as a reminder choice, this should be a 5 minute fix.  Thanks.

• Customer ticket creation via Microsoft Teams

  Hi all, I'm looking to see if someone could point me in the right direction. I'd love to make it so my customers/ end users can make tickets, see responses and respond within microsoft teams. As Admin and an Agent i've installed the zoho assist app within

• Is there a way to update all the start and end dates of tasks of a project after a calendar change?

  Hi! Here's my situation. I've built a complete project planning. All its tasks have start dates and due dates. After completing the planning, I've realized that the project calendar was not the right one. So I changed the project calendar. I now have

• How to update task start date when project start date changes?

  Hi there, When the start date of a project changes, it's important to update the start dates of the tasks associated with that project to reflect the new timeline. Is there a way to shift the start date of all project tasks when the start date of a project

• Issue with Picklist Dropdown Not Opening on Mobile

  Hello I am experiencing an issue with picklist values on mobile. While the arrow is visible, the dropdown to scroll through the available values often does not open. This issue occurs sporadically, it has worked occasionally, but it is very rare and quite

• using the client script based on the look up filed i wnat to fetch the record details like service number , service rate

  based on selected service look up field iwant to fetch the service serial number in the serice form how i achive using client script also how i get the current date in the date field in the on load of the form

• Zoho Books/Square integration, using 2 Square 'locations' with new Books 'locations'?

  Hello! I saw some old threads about this but wasn't sure if there were any updates. Is there a way to integrate the Square locations feature with the Books locations feature? As in, transactions from separate Books locations go to separate Square locations

• Zoho Commerce - How To Change Blog Published Date and Author

  Hi Commerce Team, I'm discussing a project with a client who wants to move from Woo Commerce / Wordpress to Zoho Commerce. They have around 620 blog posts which will need to be migrated. I am now aware of the blog import feature and I have run some tests.

• Does zoho inventory need Enterprise or Premium subsrciption to make Widgets.

  We have Zoho One Enterprise and yet we can't create widgets on inventory.

• ZMA shows as already connected to Zoho CRM, but integration not working

  When I try to connect ZMA with Zoho CRM, it shows as already connected, but the integration doesn’t seem to be working. I’ve attached the screen recording for reference.

• Automatic Email Alerts for Errors in Zoho Creator Logs

  Hello, We would like to request a feature enhancement in Zoho Creator regarding error notifications. Currently, Zoho Creator allows users to view logs and errors for each application by navigating to Zoho Creator > Operations > Logs. However, there is

• Workflow Rule - Field Updates: Ability to use Placeholders

  It will be great if you can use placeholder tags to update fields. For example if we want to update a custom field with the client name we can use ${CONTACT.CONTACT_FIRSTNAME}${CONTACT.CONTACT_LASTNAME}, etc

• Password Assessment Reports for all users

  I'm the super admin and looking at the reporting available for Zoho Vault. I can see that there is a Password Assessment report available showing the passwords/weak and security score by user. However I'm confused at the 'report generated on' value. Monitor

• Can't change form's original name in URL

  Hi all, I have been duplicating + editing forms for jobs regarding the same department to maintain formatting + styling. The issue I've not run into is because I've duplicated it from an existing form, the URL doesn't seem to want to update with the new

• Setting certian items to be pickup only

  How do we have some items that are pickup only? I have several items in my item's list that I do not ship. But they need to be on the website to be sold, and picked up in store. Need to be able to do this as one of these products is a major seller for

• Using gift vouchers

  We would like to be able to offer a limited number of gift vouchers, of varying values, to our customers, and are looking for the best way to do this. We have looked at Coupons and Gift Certificates, but neither seem to fit the bill perfectly. Coupons:

• Automatically updating field(s) of lookup module

  I have a lookup field, which also pulls through the Status field from the linked record. When the lookup is first done, the Status is pulled through - this works perfectly. If that Status is later updated, the lookup field does not update as well. As

• Zoho Commerce and Third-party shipping (MachShip) API integration

  We are implementing a third-party shipping (MachShip) API integration for our Zoho Commerce store and have made significant progress. However, we need guidance on a specific technical challenge. Current Challenge: We need to get the customer input to

• Adding custom "lookup" fields in Zoho Customization

  How can I add a second “lookup” field in Zoho? I’m trying to create another lookup that pulls from my Contacts, but the option doesn’t appear in the module customization sidebar. In many cases, a single work order involves multiple contacts. Ideally,

• Can you import projects into Zoho Projects yet?

  I see some very old posts asking about importing project records into Zoho Projects. But I can't find anything up to date about the topic. Has this functionality been added? Importing tasks is helpful. But we do have a project where importing projects

• Zoho Inventory. Preventing Negative Stock in Sales Orders – Best Practices?

  Dear Zoho Inventory Community, We’re a small business using Zoho Inventory with a team of sales managers. Unfortunately, some employees occasionally overlook stock levels during order processing, leading to negative inventory issues. Is there a way to

• Automation #10 - Auto Assign Ticket based on Keywords

  This is a monthly series designed to help you get the best out of Desk. We take our cue from what's being discussed or asked about the most in our community. Then we find the right use cases that specifically highlight solutions, ideas and tips on optimizing

• Automate attendance tracking with Zoho Cliq Developer Platform

  I wish remote work were permanently mandated so we could join work calls from a movie theatre or even while skydiving! But wait, it's time to wake up! The alarm has snoozed twice, and your team has already logged on for the day. Keeping tabs on attendance

• Reusable Custom Functions Across Department Workflows

  Dear Zoho Desk Team, We appreciate the powerful workflow automation capabilities in Zoho Desk, particularly the ability to create and use custom functions within workflows. However, we have encountered a limitation that impacts efficiency and maintainability.

• Don't Allow Customer to Edit Values After Submitting Ticket

  After a customer submits a ticket through the customer portal, they can go into the ticket and see some of the values from the questions they answered in the sidebar. Currently, a customer can edit these values even after they submitted them. This makes no sense. We ask very specific questions that we don't want customers to later change! Please disable the ability for customers to edit the values to their submission questions in the portal. Screenshot attached.

• Analytics <-> Invoice Connection DELETED by Zoho

  Hi All, I am reaching out today because of a big issue we have at the moment with Zoho Analytics and Zoho Invoice. Our organization relies on Zoho Analytics for most of our reporting (operationnal teams). A few days ago we observed a sync issue with the

• text length in list report mobile/tablet

  Is there a way to make the full text of a text field appear in the list report on mobile and tablet? With custom layouts, the text is always truncated after a certain number of characters.

• Automation #4 - Auto Delete Tickets based on Rules

  This is a monthly series in which we pick some common use cases that have been either discussed or most asked about in our community and explain how they can be achieved using one of the automation capabilities in Zoho Desk. Unwanted tickets spamming

• Zoho Community Digest — Enero 2026

  ¡Hola, comunidad! 🌟 Aquí os traemos las novedades más interesantes de Zoho durante este mes de enero, incluyendo actualizaciones de productos, integraciones y un recordatorio sobre los workshops certificados que vuelven a España. 🎓 Eventos y Comunidad

• Automation #3 - Auto-sync email attachments to tickets

  This is a monthly series where we pick some common use cases that have been either discussed or most asked about in our community and explain how they can be achieved using one of the automation capabilities in Zoho Desk. Most of our customers use email

• Automation #11 - Auto Update Custom Fields with Values from Emails

  This is a monthly series designed to help you get the best out of Desk. We take our cue from what's being discussed or asked about the most in our community. Then we find the right use cases that specifically highlight solutions, ideas and tips to optimize

• Automation #13 - Auto assign tickets based on agent shift time

  This is a monthly series designed to help you get the best out of Desk. We take our cue from what's being discussed or asked about the most in our community. Then we find the right use cases that specifically highlight solutions, ideas and tips to optimize

• Automation #14: Capture Jira Issue Key/ID in a Ticket Custom Field

  Hello Everyone! This month's edition brings you a custom function to consolidate your records associated with Jira integration. Jira integration enables support engineers and R&D units to collaborate seamlessly on feature development, product improvement,

• Automation #16: Automate Ticket Reopening on Scheduled Timestamp

  Hello Everyone! This edition uncovers the option to schedule reopening a ticket automatically. Zylker Finance tracks insurance policyholder activities through Zoho Desk. For policyholders who pay monthly premiums, tickets are closed upon payment completion.

• Automation#19:Auto-Close Tickets Upon Task Completion

  Hello Everyone! We’re excited to bring you another custom function this week. In this edition, we’ll show you how to automatically close tickets when all associated tasks are marked as completed. Let’s see how ZylkaPure, a leading water filter company,

• Automation #15: Automatically Adding Static Secondary Contacts

  Rockel is a top-tier client of Zylker traders. Marcus handles communications with Rockel and would like to add Terence, the CTO of Zylker traders to the email conversations. In this case, the emails coming from user address rockel.com should have Terence

• Improved UX design for Projects CRM integration

  The current integration embeds the entier projects inteface into the CRM this is confusing and allows users to get lost. For example as a user i navigate to an account and go down to the related projects list and want to get information about a specific

• Link Purchase Order to Deal

  Zoho Books directly syncs with contacts, vendors and products in Zoho CRM including field mapping. Is there any way to associate vendor purchase orders with deals, so that we can calculate our profit margin for each deal with connected sales invoices

• Next Page