Having a conversation

Owned by Remie Bolte
Last updated: Feb 24, 2021 by Jonas Hallensleben
2 min read

Once you've configured the link between the Jira Service project and the MessageBird Conversations API, you can start receiving messages via the selected channel.

There are a few caveats to take into account, so please read this carefully.

Starting a conversation

All communications have to be initiated by the end-user. The Jira Service agent cannot start the conversation.

When a user starts the conversation, a support request will be created based on the selected request type. This will be shown in the Jira Service queue for new/open tickets. Only one conversation can be active per end-user, all messages sent to that conversations (regardless of channel) will be added to the support request that is linked to that conversation.

All messages received from the end-user will be aggregated and added to the description field of the ticket, even if they span multiple days, until the agent responds via a public comment.

Some channels, like WhatsApp, impose limitations on how long a conversation is regarded “active”. It is recommended for Jira Service agents to respond at least within 24 hours after the last received is message. Once this period has expired, only the end-user can re-activate the conversation by sending a new message.

Continuing the conversation

Once the agent responds, the conversation is continued in the comments section. The end-user will only receive messages from the agent placed in public comments.

When the end-user responds to a message from the agent, a comment is created on their behalve. All messages are aggregated in the last end-user comment until the agent creates a new comment.

The end-user will receive status notifications. If you have automated Jira Service Desk to automatically transition a ticket between statuses when the agent or a user creates a comment, the end-user will always be notified. Please make sure to take this into consideration when designing your workflow

Ending the conversation

The conversation is automatically closed when the support request is transitioned into the done state by the Jira Service agent, or if it is closed manually in the MessageBird Dashboard.

Once the conversation has been closed, it is no longer possible to receive or sent any updates for that support request to the end-user.

If the user responds to the channel after the conversation has been closed, a new support request will be created. It is therefore recommended to inform the end-user about this when finishing the conversation.

Multimedia messages

Conversations for ITSM supports receiving attachments from end-users. However, at this point, it is not possible to sent attachments to the end-user due to security & privacy limitations imposed by Atlassian Jira Service Management.