Zoho Desk: 2023 Feature Release - All New Zoho Desk with accessibility controls and exciting new features and enhancements

Zoho Desk: 2023 Feature Release - All New Zoho Desk with accessibility controls and exciting new features and enhancements

Redefining customer service experiences

I. New Generation Zoho Desk
The Zoho Desk UI has been enhanced with a more engaging, intuitive, and user-friendly interface. The new design adheres to an advanced unified component library and follows standard design guidelines.

The fresh Zoho Desk interface brings changes that provide support to agents with a range of easy-to-use and convenient options that save time and effort while increasing productivity.

Take a look at some of the elements of our new UI:

The Agent Queue now displays the agent's name first in the queue. Agents can work on assigned tickets right from this window. 


Tags can be edited and deleted from the Tag view in the left panel.


Work Modes provide an organized and clutter-free view. All work modes, including status, handshake, countdown, and priority are consolidated under the list views. 


Ticket status can now be changed right from the Queue view without opening the Ticket Detail view. 


Filters applied to quick search a record are now displayed as breadcrumbs to provide better context and facilitate better understanding.


Ticket Detail view now includes more functionalities:
  • Tags can be added from the info panel.
  • CCs can be added and edited from the info panel.
  • Color distinction differentiates between public and private comments.

  • Compact info bar holds more icons and displays extensions for quick access.

This is just a glimpse of some of the key changes incorporated into the new UI design.
Resources: Help documents 

II. Providing inclusive experiences

We believe that software should be accessible to all. This was our goal in building an all-inclusive interface to cater to our world-wide customer base. With this in mind, we introduce:
  • Accessibility controls that help users adjust, enable, or disable visual and display preferences to their liking. Users now have the option to:
    • Highlight critical information, such as Ticket ID, agent name, email address, and ticket owner in striking colors for prominence and cognitive appeal.
    • Underline links for quick identification.
    • Emphasize areas that a user should focus on with highlights and colored outlines around the text.

    • Optimize animations, motion graphics, and transitions by reducing motion or by allowing Zoho Desk to auto-adjust based on the computer settings. The screen jerks, page transitions, unwanted animations, and motions that can cause distraction and increase strain on the eyes can be mitigated substantially.
    • Use a reading mask to shine a spotlight on the text as you hover over it. Blur the background for distinction, less distraction, and better comprehension. 

    • Adjust display and layout with page zoom and font size and type. 
    • Set display preferences with new themes and night/dark mode. Switch between light mode, night mode, or auto-mode based on your surroundings.




  • Multilingual support for your Knowledge Base helps customers access self-service content in their preferred language. Your KB content can be translated and published in 50+ languages.

III. Introducing enhanced privacy and transparent management

Data is the backbone of a business and it requires secure handling. This year, Zoho Desk took big strides to enhance privacy and provide better data management options by introducing:

Data subject rights: In accordance with GDPR, Zoho Desk now provides a reliable and secure system to protect and process customer data. DSR protects two different rights: Right to Access and Right to Erasure. Refer to the help doc for more details.
  • Right to Access: Data subjects can request a copy of their personal data. In Zoho Desk, you can register a request and send a copy of the data from one or more modules. Data will be exported, and you can send it securely from your official email account.
  • Right to Erasure: Data subjects can raise a request asking the organization to delete their personal data. In Zoho Desk, you can take up this request and permanently delete the data from one or more modules.
Read receipts for emails: Emails sent from tickets will bear a green double check mark when they've been read by the recipient. This helps agents manage high-priority tasks, deadlines, follow-up conversations, and more. Check marks in different colors indicate whether CC or BCC recipients have read the email, the number of recipients that replied to the email, whether the email bounced or failed, and more. Read the help doc for more details.

Data Backup: A foolproof method for preventing data loss is to periodically back up your data. Zoho Desk now facilitates instant and scheduled backups. Data from the Tickets, Products, KB, Activities, Agents, Teams, and other modules can be backed up as and when needed. Refer to the help doc for more details. 

Other new features and enhancements

Aside from these updates, we have some exciting new features:

Auto-translation of your help center
To support your multilingual knowledge base further, Zoho Desk now offers auto-translation of your KB articles to multiple languages. The article, title, tags, SEO title, meta descriptions, and meta keywords will be auto-translated using tools such as Google Translate, Unbable, or Zia, based on their configuration. Refer to the help doc for more details.

Custom actions gallery for Workflow automations
Introducing custom actions to improve workflow automations. The new set of available actions includes: Assign Ticket, Add Comment, Send Email Reply, Share Ticket, Send Cliq Notification, Reply and Notify via Instant Messaging, and more. Refer to the help doc for more details. 

Idle timeout to improve agent productivity and optimize ticket assignment
Desk provides the option to set the maximum duration for which an agent can remain idle.  After that time, their status will automatically change from online to offline. Increase productivity and maintain better control over ticket assignment by choosing agents based on status. Refer to the help doc for more details.  

More functionalities added to Blueprints
Advanced configurations we've added to Blueprint include:
  • Strict mode: Agents can be restricted from performing certain actions, like editing fields, sending replies, leaving comments, and asking for approvals during a transition. These functions will be hidden from the ticket interface.
  • Dynamic transition owner: Users can assign transition owners for records as and when needed. The transition owners need not be necessarily from the same department that the record belongs to.
  • Save draft: Blueprints that are in progress can be saved as drafts so you can resume work at another time.
  • Additional fields provided during transition: During transition, "tags" is included as a field that can be updated by the agent.  Ticket sharing is also an available action. If the agents want, they can share a ticket with team members during the transition.
  • Transition draft: Save a transition until its finalized as a partial draft. During this stage, multiple transition owners can be involved in its completion. The draft will display the name of the person who drafted the transition and when it was drafted.
New set of marketplace extensions
Earlier this year, we introduced a set of new extensions aimed at enhancing Zoho Desk's performance. The new extensions are:

Zoho Campaigns integration
Experience the benefits of Campaigns within your help desk. Create mailing lists, add or remove customers from mailing lists, find out how many campaigns customers are part of, and more. Refer to the help doc for more details.

Broadcast email template
Create email templates for multiple departments at once, insert an agent's signature and default happiness rating within the template, provide profile-based access to the template, and more. Refer to the help doc for more details.

Related tickets by custom fields
Improve ticket resolutions by adding custom fields. Using these fields, agents can look up tickets with similar field values to identify similar problems, and provide quicker and more personalized solutions. Up to five custom fields can be added to a layout, and can display information such as ticket ID, ticket owner, status, and date/time created from related tickets. Refer to the help doc for more details.   

That's a wrap.
We're excited to share the new version of Zoho Desk with its inclusive functionality, improved automation, comprehensive privacy options, helpful extensions, and more.

The new features are now available for all users. Give them a try and share your feedback.

Regards,
Anumita Gupta

Book the date!
We will be hosting an exclusive webinar for the 2023 Release Features on 22nd December (Thursday) at 9pm IST. 
Kindly register using the link below. 













 











    • 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

    • ZOHO Creator subform link

      Dear Community Support, I am looking for some guidance on how to add a clickable link within a Zoho Creator subform. The goal is for this link to redirect users to another Creator form where they can edit the data related to the specific row they clicked

    • Upload API

      I'm trying to use the Upload API to upload some images and attach them to comments (https://desk.zoho.com/DeskAPIDocument#Uploads#Uploads_Uploadfile) - however I can only ever get a 401 or bad request back. I'm using an OAuth token with the Desk.tickets.ALL

    • Adding Overlays to Live Stream

      Hello folks, The company I work for will host an online event through Zoho Webinar. I want to add an overlay (an image) at the bottom of the screen with all the sponsors' logos. Is it possible to add an image as an overlay during the live stream? If so,

    • Email Sending Failed - SMTP Error: data not accepted. - WHMCS Not sending emails due to this error

      I have been trying to figure out a fix for about a week now and I haven't found one on my own so I am going to ask for help on here.  After checking all the settings and even resetting my password for the email used for WHMCS it still says: Email Sending Failed - SMTP Error: data not accepted.  I have no clue how to fix it at this point. Any insight would be lovely. 

    • FSM setup

      So we have been tinkering with FSM to see if it is going to be for us. Now is the time to bite the bullet and link it to our zoho books and zoho crm. The help guides are good but it would really help if they were a bit more in depth on the intergrations.

    • Does Zoho Learn integrate with Zoho Connect,People,Workdrive,Project,Desk?

      Can we propose Zoho LEarn as a centralised Knowledge Portal tool that can get synched with the other Zoho products and serve as a central Knowledge repository?

    • Zoho Flow - Update record in Trackvia

      Hello, I have a Flow that executes correctly but I only want it to execute once when a particular field on a record is updated in TrackVia. I have the trigger filters setup correctly and I want to add an "update record" action at the end of the flow to

    • Add Comprehensive Accessibility Features to Zoho Desk Help Center for End Users

      Hello Zoho Desk Team, We hope you're doing well. We’d like to submit a feature request to enhance the client-facing Help Center in Zoho Desk with comprehensive accessibility features, similar to those already available on the agent interface. 🎯 Current

    • Filtering repport for portal users

      Salut, I have a weird problem that I just cannot figure out : When I enter information as administrator on behalf of a "supplier" portal user (in his "inventory" in a shared inventory system), I can see it, "customer" portal users can see it, but the

    • How to add application logo

      I'm creating an application which i do not want it to show my organization logo so i have changed the setting but i cannot find where to upload/select the logo i wish to use for my application. I have seen something online about using Deluge and writing

    • Zoho Projects - Q2 Updates | 2025

      Hello Users, With this year's second quarter behind us, Zoho Projects is marching towards expanding its usability with a user-centered, more collaborative, customizable, and automated attribute. But before we chart out plans for what’s next, it’s worth

    • Rename Record Summary PDF in SendMail task

      So I've been tasked with renaming a record summary PDF to be sent as part of a sendmail task. Normally I would offer the manual solution, a user exports the PDF and uploads it to a file upload field, however this is not acceptable to the client in this

    • Option to Empty Entire Mailbox or Folder in Zoho Mail

      Hello Zoho Mail Team, How are you? We would like to request an enhancement to Zoho Mail that would allow administrators and users to quickly clear out entire folders or mailboxes, including shared mailboxes. Current Limitation: At present, Zoho Mail only

    • Create new Account with contact

      Hi I can create a new Account and, as part of that process, add a primary contact (First name, last name) and Email. But THIS contact does NOT appear in Contacts. How can I make sure the Contact added when creating an Account is also listed as a Contact?

    • BUTTONS SHOWN AS AN ICON ON A REPORT

      Hi Is there any way to create an action button but show it as an icon on a report please? As per the attached example? So if the user clicks the icon, it triggers an action?

    • in zoho creator Sales Returns form has sub form Line Items return quantity when i upate the or enter any values in the sub form that want to reflect in the Sales Order form item deail sub form field Q

      in zoho creator Sales Returns form has sub form Line Items return quantity when i upate the or enter any values in the sub form that want to reflect in the Sales Order form item deail sub form field Quantity Returned\ pls check the recording fetch_salesorder

    • Estimates with options and sub-totals

      Hi It seems it would be great to be able to show multiple options in an estimate. For instance I have a core product to which I can add options, and maybe sub-options... It would be great to have subtotals and isolate the core from the not compulsory items. Thanks

    • Rate Limiting in Zoho Flow (OpenAI API)

      Hi Everyone, We are facing some issues when using Zoho Flow as we have a deluge script running which is making external calls to OpenAI endpoint. Sometimes the response takes more than 30 seconds meaning the script will timeout. We want to implement a

    • Optional Items Estimate

      How do you handle optional items within an estimate? In our case we have only options to choose with. (Like your software pricing, ...standard, professional, enterprise) How can we disable the total price? Working with Qty = 0 is unprofessional....

    • Important Update : Zendesk Sell announced End of Life

      Hello Zendesk users, Zendesk has officially announced that Zendesk Sell will reach its End of Life (EOL) on August 31, 2027 (Learn more). In line with this deprecation, Zoho Analytics will retire its native Zendesk Sell connector effective October 1,

    • Zoho Sheets

      Hi, I am trying to transition into Zoho sheets, I have attached the issues encountered. Server issues, file trying to upload for more than 30 mins, even once uploaded my data aren't loaded. Simple calculations are not working I have attached the sample.

    • Create static subforms in Zoho CRM: streamline data entry with pre-defined values

      Last modified on (9 July, 2025): This feature was available in early access and is currently being rolled out to customers in phases. Currently available for users in the the AU, CA, and SA DCs. It will be enabled for the remaining DCs in the next couple

    • Zoho CRM + Zoho FSM : alignez vos équipes commerciales et techniques

      La vente est finalisée, mais le parcours client ne fait que commencer ! Dans les entreprises orientées service, conclure une vente représente seulement la première étape. Ce qui suit — installation, réparation ou maintenance régulière — influence grandement

    • Top Bar Shifting issue still not fixed yet

      I mentioned in a previous ticket that on Android, the top bar shifts up when you view collections or when you're in the settings. That issue still hasn't been fixed yet. I don't wanna have to reinstall the app as I've noticed for some reason, reinstalling

    • Power of Automation:: Automate the process of updating project status based on a specific task status.

      Hello Everyone, Today, I am pleased to showcase the capabilities of a custom function that is available in our Gallery. To explore the custom functions within the Gallery, please follow the steps below. Click Setup in the top right corner > Developer

    • Celebrating Connections with Zoho Desk

      September 27 is a special day marking two great occasions: World Tourism Day and Google’s birthday. What do these two events have in common (besides the date)? It's something that Zoho Desk celebrates, too: making connections. The connect through tourism

    • Attention API Users: Upcoming Support for Renaming System Fields

      Hello all! We are excited to announce an upcoming enhancement in Zoho CRM: support for renaming system-defined fields! Current Behavior Currently, system-defined fields returned by the GET - Fields Metadata API have display_label and field_label properties

    • Billing Management: #3 Billing Unbilled Charges Periodically

      We had a smooth sail into Prorated Billing, a practice that ensures fairness when customers join, upgrade, or downgrade a service at any point during the billing cycle. But what happens when a customer requests additional limits or features during the

    • No bank feeds from First National Bank South Africa since 12 September

      I do not know how Zoho Books expects its customers to run a business like this. I have contacted Zoho books numerous times about this and the say it is solved - on email NO ONE ANSWERS THE SOUTH AFRICAN HELP LINE Come on Zoho Books, you cannot expect

    • Zoho CRM Calendar | Custom Buttons

      I'm working with my sales team to make our scheduling process easier for our team. We primary rely on Zoho CRM calendar to organize our events for our sales team. I was wondering if there is a way to add custom button in the Calendar view on events/meeting

    • Sync desktop folders instantly with WorkDrive TrueSync (Beta)

      Keeping your important files backed up and accessible has never been easier! With WorkDrive desktop app (TrueSync), you can now automatically sync specific desktop folders to WorkDrive Web, ensuring seamless, real-time updates across devices. Important:

    • Citation Problem

      I had an previous ticket (#116148702) on this subject. The basic problem is this; the "Fetch Details" feature works fine on the first attempt but fails on every subsequent attempt, Back in July after having submitted information electronically and was

    • Open Sans Font in Zoho Books is not Open Sans.

      Font choice in customising PDF Templates is very limited, we cannot upload custom fonts, and to make things worse, the font names are not accurate. I selected Open Sans, and thought the system was bugging, but no, Open Sans is not Open Sans. The real

    • Does Zoho Sheet Supports https://n8n.io ?

      Does Zoho Sheet Supports https://n8n.io ? If not, can we take this as an idea and deploy in future please? Thanks

    • Failing to generate Access and Refresh Token

      Hello.  I have two problems: First one when generating Access and Refresh Token I get this response:  As per the guide here : https://www.zoho.com/books/api/v3/#oauth (using server based application) I'm following all the steps. I have managed to get

    • Zeptomail 136.143.188.150 blocked by SpamCop

      Hi - it looks like this IP is being blocked, resulting in hard bounces unfortunately :( "Reason: uncategorized-bounceMessage: 5.7.1 Service unavailable; Client host [136.143.188.150] blocked using bl.spamcop.net; Blocked - see https://www.spamcop.net/bl.shtml?136.143.188.150

    • Apply transaction rules to multiple banks

      Is there any way to make transaction rules for one bank apply to other banks? It seems cumbersome to have to re-enter the same date for every account.

    • How to bulk update records with Data Enrichment by Zia

      Hi, I want to bulk update my records with Data Enrichment by Zia. How can I do this?

    • Need Guidance on SPF Flattening for Zoho Mail Configuration

      Hi everyone, I'm hoping to get some advice on optimizing my SPF record for a Zoho Mail setup. I use Zoho Mail along with several other Zoho services, and as a result, my current SPF record has grown to include multiple include mechanisms. My Cloudflare

    • Is there an equivalent to the radius search in RECRUIT available in the CRM

      We have a need to find all Leads and/or Contacts within a given radius of a given location (most likely postcode) but also possibly an address. I was wondering whether anyone has found a way to achieve this in the CRM much as the radius search in RECRUIT

    • Next Page