Support Portal provides multiple sorting modes that control the order in which conversations appear in the agent workspace. By selecting the appropriate mode, agents and supervisors can ensure that the most operationally relevant conversations surface first — whether that means the newest interaction, the oldest unresolved request, or the most critical SLA-sensitive issue.
Operational objective
Sorting determines how the platform ranks conversations within a given view. The correct sorting strategy depends on your team's operational goals:
- Responsiveness — Surface conversations with the most recent customer activity so agents engage with active discussions first.
- Fairness — Order conversations by creation time to ensure older requests are not overlooked.
- Criticality — Rank conversations by assigned priority level, placing urgent and high-priority items at the top of the queue.
- SLA compliance — Identify conversations that have been waiting the longest for a response, reducing the risk of SLA breaches.
Sorting applies to the current conversation list view and works alongside filters, labels, and assignment rules. It does not change the underlying data — only the display order.
Available sorting modes
The agent workspace offers four sorting modes, accessible from the sort control above the conversation list.
Last activity
Conversations are ordered by the timestamp of their most recent event — typically the last incoming or outgoing message, but also status changes and internal notes.
| Behavior | Detail |
|---|---|
| Order | Most recently active conversation appears first |
| Timestamp source | Last message, status update, or activity event |
| Use case | Monitoring active discussions in real time |
This mode is the default. It ensures agents see ongoing conversations that require immediate follow-up, rather than older threads with no recent movement.
Creation time
Conversations are ordered by the timestamp at which they were initially created, regardless of subsequent activity.
| Behavior | Detail |
|---|---|
| Order | Most recently created conversation appears first |
| Timestamp source | Conversation creation timestamp |
| Use case | Reviewing the intake queue; ensuring older conversations are addressed |
When reversed (oldest first), this mode supports a first-in-first-out workflow — useful for regulated environments where processing order matters.
Priority
Conversations are ranked by their assigned priority level. The hierarchy follows a fixed order:
- Urgent — appears at the top
- High
- Medium
- Low
- None — conversations without an assigned priority appear last
| Behavior | Detail |
|---|---|
| Order | Highest severity first; unassigned priority at the bottom |
| Timestamp source | Not time-based — purely rank-based |
| Use case | Ensuring critical issues receive attention before routine inquiries |
Within the same priority tier, conversations are ordered by last activity. This means two urgent conversations are still distinguishable by recency.
Enterprise example: A government helpdesk assigns Urgent priority to citizen complaints with regulatory deadlines. When agents switch to priority sorting, these conversations surface above general inquiries — ensuring compliance targets are met before lower-severity requests are handled.
Waiting for response
Conversations are ordered by how long they have been waiting for an agent reply. This mode focuses exclusively on conversations where the most recent message was from the contact, not the agent.
| Behavior | Detail |
|---|---|
| Order | Longest-waiting conversation appears first |
| Timestamp source | Time elapsed since the last incoming message with no agent reply |
| Use case | Reducing response delays; preventing SLA breaches |
Conversations where the agent has already replied — or where the last activity was an outgoing message — are placed at the bottom of the list.
Enterprise example: A telecom operator with a 30-minute first-response SLA uses this mode during peak hours. Agents immediately see which conversations are closest to breaching the SLA threshold, allowing them to address the most time-sensitive items first.
How sorting interacts with other features
Sorting works in combination with several other workspace capabilities:
| Feature | Interaction |
|---|---|
| Filters | Sorting applies within the filtered result set. For example, filtering by a specific label and sorting by priority shows only labeled conversations, ranked by severity. |
| Assignment | Sorting applies equally to "Mine," "Unassigned," and "All" conversation views. |
| Labels | Labels do not affect sort order directly, but labeled sidebar views respect the active sorting mode. See Labels. |
| Priority | Priority values are set per conversation — either manually or through automation rules. The priority sorting mode reads these values. See Automation. |
Choosing a sorting strategy
The appropriate sorting mode depends on the team's operational context:
| Scenario | Recommended mode |
|---|---|
| General support desk during business hours | Last activity |
| Queue-based processing with SLA requirements | Waiting for response |
| Incident management or escalation handling | Priority |
| End-of-day review of unresolved intake | Creation time |
Teams operating under strict SLA policies should consider combining the Waiting for response mode with automation rules that assign priority levels based on elapsed time. This ensures that conversations approaching an SLA threshold are both flagged and surfaced at the top of the queue.