Lesson 2: Dashboard Basics

In Lesson 1 you sent your first reply. That's enough to support one customer. To support fifty without losing your mind, you need to know your way around the dashboard. This lesson is the map.

What you'll learn

• The four regions of the Chatwoot dashboard and what each one is for

• How to find any conversation fast — by status, assignee, inbox, label, or text

• The four conversation statuses and when to use each

• The difference between Mine, Unassigned, All, Mentions, and Unattended views

• How to set your availability and manage notifications

• The keyboard shortcuts that pay for themselves on day one

You'll need: Your inbox from Lesson 1 and at least one test conversation in it. (Send yourself two or three messages from the widget so the dashboard isn't empty.)

The four regions of the dashboard

Almost every screen in Chatwoot is laid out the same way. Once this clicks, the rest of the product becomes obvious.

1. Navigation rail (far left)

Vertical strip of icons. Top to bottom: Inbox, Conversations, Captain (if AI is enabled), Contacts, Reports, Campaigns, Help Center, and Settings. This is how you switch pages — everything else changes based on where you are here.

2. Conversation list (middle-left)

A scrollable list of conversations with filters and tabs at the top. This is where you live during a shift.

3. Conversation view (center)

The actual messages plus the reply box. Tabs at the top let you switch between Reply, Private Note, and (where supported) Email mode for outbound messages.

4. Context panel (right)

Everything you might need to know about the customer — contact details, previous conversations, custom attributes, conversation actions (assign, label, team, status), and any dashboard apps you've added.

Tip: You can collapse the right panel. Useful on small screens or when you're focused purely on the message thread.

The conversation list, in detail

This is the panel you'll spend the most time scanning. Three things to learn:

Tabs at the top: who owns what

Most teams build their day around Mine (work the queue you own) and Unassigned (grab the next one when Mine is empty).

Status filter: where in the lifecycle

Right under the tabs, switch between:

• Open — the customer is waiting on a reply

• Pending — bot or AI is handling it, not yet ready for a human

• Snoozed — set aside until a date/time or until the customer replies

• Resolved — done

Two more views you should know about

• Mentions — conversations where a teammate @-mentioned you in a private note. Treat this like email — check it daily.

• Unattended — assigned conversations that still haven't gotten a first reply. This is where managers find dropped balls.

Both live in the navigation as separate views, not under the Mine/Unassigned/All tabs.

Filters, folders, and search

Quick filters (left sidebar)

Below the Conversations entry in the nav, you'll find a tree:

• Inboxes — filter by a specific channel (just Email, just Website, etc.)

• Labels — filter by a label you've applied (bug-report, vip, etc.)

• Teams — filter by the team handling the conversation

• Folders — filters you've saved

Folders

Anytime you build a useful filter, click Save filter as folder and give it a name. It appears under Folders for one-click access. Examples worth saving on day one:

• VIP customers waiting — label vip + status Open

• Stuck in pending — status Pending + last activity > 1 day

• My snoozed — assignee Me + status Snoozed

Search

The search bar at the top of the dashboard searches across conversations, messages, contacts, and articles.

Conversation statuses, and when to use which

You'll set conversation status many times a day. Pick the right one and your queue stays honest.

Rule of thumb: if you wouldn't want to see this conversation again today, snooze it. The Open queue is for things that need attention now.

Your status: Online, Busy, Offline

Bottom left of the dashboard, click your avatar to set:

• Online — you're available; auto-assignment sends you new work

• Busy — you're around but heads-down; the system avoids assigning new conversations to you

• Offline — you're done for the day; new work goes to others

Your status is also visible to teammates, so they know when to ping you.

Auto-offline: Chatwoot will mark you offline automatically if you close the tab or go idle, so you won't accidentally hold conversations after logging off.

My Inbox

My inbox in the navigation shows in-app notifications: new assignments, mentions, conversation creations, and SLA alerts. Click any item to jump straight to the conversation.

Notifications

You also have four notification channels you can configure from Profile Settings → Notifications:

• Audio — alert sound on the dashboard

• Email — for things you'd want to see from your inbox

• Push — browser push, even when the dashboard isn't open

A common starting point: enable Push for Conversation assigned to me and Mention, leave audio on, skip the rest until they prove useful.

Mini-exercise (3 minutes)

Try these in order. They cement everything above:

1. Send yourself two new test messages from the widget so the queue isn't empty.

2. From the dashboard, open the second one and assign it to yourself.

3. Apply a label called practice.

4. Snooze it until tomorrow morning.

5. Click into Mine, then Snoozed — your conversation should be there.

6. Build a filter: status = Open, label = practice. Save it as a folder called Practice queue.

If everything in that list felt natural, you're ready to actually run a shift.

Common questions

Why don't I see all my team's conversations?

You only see inboxes you've been added to. If a conversation is missing, you may not be a member of that inbox — ask an admin.

My queue feels overwhelming. What do I work first?

Default order: Mentions → Unattended → Mine (Open) → Unassigned. Mentions and unattended are signals that something is off; Mine is your committed work; Unassigned is "new fuel" once the first three are clear.

A conversation I resolved came back. Did I do something wrong?

No — that's by design. If a customer replies after you resolve, Chatwoot reopens the conversation automatically so it doesn't get lost.

Feeling confident about the dashboard? That probably took 5 minutes! Let us understand all the core features next. Go to Lesson 3A now.