Canonical page: https://docs.teloring.com/docs/product/on-hold Last modified: 2026-08-20T20:49:57.000Z # On Hold **On Hold parks a conversation until a time you choose.** The customer asked you to call back after lunch, you are waiting for a delivery to arrive, a colleague has to check something tomorrow morning — put the conversation on hold and stop thinking about it. Teloring brings it back on its own. It comes back in **two** ways, whichever happens first: 1. **The time is up.** Teloring returns it to your queue and marks it unread. 2. **The customer writes again.** The hold ends immediately — even at 2 minutes into a 5-hour hold. That second rule is the important one. A customer who says "call me in five hours" and then writes back in twenty minutes should be in front of you now, not asleep until the deadline. :::info On Hold is a status, not a folder On Hold is a **top-level conversation status**, next to Open and Resolved — not a sub-state of Open. A conversation on hold **disappears** from Mine, Waiting in line, Studio Bot, AI Agent and All Open, and stops counting in your dashboard numbers. That is the whole point: parked work must not sit in your active list creating false urgency. ::: ## Key facts | Fact | Meaning | | --- | --- | | It keeps its owner | The conversation stays assigned to you. When it comes back, it comes back to **you**, not to the general queue. | | It has its own queue | **Conversations → On Hold** in the sidebar, at the same level as Mine and Waiting in line. | | The queue is account-wide | Every agent sees every held conversation, like All Open. Filter by **Assigned agent** to see only yours. | | A customer reply cancels it | On every channel, and without you being online. | | The timer is accurate to about a minute | Teloring checks for expired holds once a minute, so a conversation returns within roughly a minute of its deadline. | | Deadlines use the **business** timezone | Not your personal one. See [Which timezone is used](#which-timezone-is-used). | | Resolved conversations cannot be held | Reopen it first. A hold on a closed conversation would mean nothing. | | It is recorded | Entering and leaving a hold appear in the conversation's timeline and in the account audit log. | ## When to use it | Situation | Why On Hold fits | | --- | --- | | "Call me back this afternoon." | The conversation returns at the time you agreed, without a personal reminder or a sticky note. | | Waiting on a delivery, refund, or repair | Park it for a realistic date instead of re-reading it every hour. | | Waiting on a colleague or another department | It leaves your active list but stays yours, so nothing is dropped. | | The customer is unreachable right now | Try again tomorrow morning without losing the thread. | | A promise with a date on it | "We'll check on Sunday" becomes something the system remembers, not something you have to. | When **not** to use it: | Situation | Do this instead | | --- | --- | | The issue is finished | **Resolve** it. On Hold is for work that is still open. | | Somebody else should handle it | **Send back in line** or assign it to an agent or [team](./teams.md). | | You need the whole team to see it is blocked | Add a **label** or a **flag** as well — the On Hold queue shows the deadline, but a label explains *why*. | --- ## Put a conversation on hold Open the conversation and use the **On Hold** button in the top bar, next to **Resolve**.  That opens the duration picker.  ### The duration picker | Element | What it does | | --- | --- | | **1 hour** | Comes back one hour from now. | | **4 hours** | Comes back four hours from now. | | **Tomorrow 9:00** | Comes back at 09:00 the next calendar day, in the business timezone. | | **1 week** | Comes back seven days from now. | | **Custom** | Reveals a date-and-time field so you can pick any moment. | | **Date and time** (Custom only) | The exact return time. Read in the business timezone. | | Timezone note | Names the timezone the times are calculated in, so there is never a silent mismatch. | | **Put on hold** | Confirms and parks the conversation. | | **Cancel** | Closes the picker and changes nothing. | A custom time must be at least **one minute** away and no more than **365 days** away. Anything outside that is rejected with a message in the picker, and the conversation is not touched. ### What happens the moment you confirm 1. The conversation's status becomes **On Hold**. 2. It **leaves** whichever queue you were looking at, and the chat panel closes. 3. It **appears** in the On Hold queue for everyone in the account. 4. It stays **assigned to you**. 5. Everyone else's screen updates immediately — no refresh needed. :::note Your assignment is deliberately kept On Hold does not release ownership. This is not "send back in line with a timer" — it is "come back to *me* later". ::: --- ## The On Hold queue Open **Conversations → On Hold** in the sidebar. The badge counts every held conversation in the account, and is hidden when nothing is on hold.  In the list itself, each row carries a **⏸ deadline** chip, so you can scan the queue and see what is waking up when. | Element | What it shows | | --- | --- | | Sidebar badge | How many conversations in the account are on hold. Hidden at zero. | | **⏸** chip on a card | When that conversation is due back, in **your** display timezone. | | Search, sort, filters | Work exactly as in the other queues. | | **Assigned agent** filter | Use it to narrow the queue to your own held conversations. | :::tip See only your own held conversations The queue is account-wide on purpose — a supervisor needs to see what the team has parked. To see just yours, open the **Filter** panel and pick yourself under **Assigned agent**. ::: Opening a held conversation works normally: you can read it, add a private note, change labels, and even reply. **Replying does not end the hold** — only the three triggers below do. --- ## How a hold ends ### 1. The time is up Teloring checks once a minute for holds that have expired. When one has: | What changes | Detail | | --- | --- | | Status | Back to **Open**. | | Assignment | Unchanged — it returns to the same agent. | | Unread | Marked **unread**, so it stands out in the list. | | Queue | Leaves On Hold, reappears in **Mine** for its owner and in **All Open**. | You do not need to be online. If the hold expires overnight, the conversation is waiting, unread, when you sign in. ### 2. The customer replies If the customer sends anything before the deadline, the hold ends **at once**: - the conversation returns to **Open**, still assigned to you; - it reappears in **Mine** and **All Open** with the new message; - the deadline is discarded. This works on **every channel** — WhatsApp, Email, SMS, Telegram, LINE, Live Chat, Messenger, Facebook and Instagram, TikTok, and the API inbox — and it happens on Teloring's side, so it does not depend on anyone having the app open. :::info The reply lands in the same conversation A customer writing to a held conversation continues **that** conversation. Teloring does not start a second one alongside it. ::: A WhatsApp **reaction** counts as the customer speaking, so it also ends a hold. Removing a reaction does not. ### 3. You end it yourself While a conversation is on hold, the top-bar button changes to **On hold until …** and becomes the release control. Because that label does not announce that clicking it undoes the hold, Teloring asks first, in a small confirmation next to the button.  | Element | What it does | | --- | --- | | **On hold until …** (button) | Shows the deadline. Click to start taking it off hold. | | **Take off hold** | Returns the conversation to Open immediately. | | **Cancel** | Leaves the hold as it is. | Pressing `Esc` or clicking anywhere outside also cancels. Released this way, the conversation goes back to **Open** with the same owner. It is **not** marked unread — you are already looking at it. ### Resolving or reopening also clears it If you **Resolve** a held conversation, or move it to another status, the hold is dropped in the same action. A closed conversation can never be woken up by an old timer. --- ## Change a deadline To move a deadline, take the conversation **off hold** and put it on hold again with the new time. There is no "extend" control in the picker. --- ## Which timezone is used Two different timezones exist in Teloring, and On Hold uses both — for different jobs. | Timezone | Where it is set | What it does for On Hold | | --- | --- | --- | | **Business timezone** | **Settings → General** (admin) | **Calculates** the deadline. "Tomorrow 9:00" means 09:00 for the business, so two agents in two countries parking the same conversation get the same moment. | | **Your display timezone** | **Profile → Personal Information** | **Displays** the deadline. It changes what you read on the button and the ⏸ chip, never when the conversation actually returns. | Leave your profile timezone empty and Teloring shows times in your browser's own timezone, which is what most agents expect. :::warning A deadline is a business rule, not a personal preference This is the same principle as business hours, SLA windows and report periods: they all follow the **business** timezone. If your personal timezone differs from the business one, the picker's note tells you which zone the times are in — read it before choosing a custom time. ::: **Example.** The business timezone is `Asia/Jerusalem` and you work from London. You pick **Tomorrow 9:00**. The conversation returns at 09:00 Jerusalem time, which your screen shows as 07:00 — correct in both places, and the same instant for everyone. --- ## Permissions | Action | Who can do it | | --- | --- | | Put a conversation on hold | The **assigned agent**, or an **Admin**. | | Take it off hold | The assigned agent, the agent who parked it, or an **Admin**. | | See the On Hold queue | Every agent in the account. | A conversation that nobody owns — sitting in Waiting in line, or held by Studio Bot or an AI Agent — can only be put on hold by an Admin. Normally you would **take** the conversation first, then hold it. These rules are enforced on the server, not only hidden in the interface. --- ## On Hold and the rest of Teloring | Feature | Behavior | | --- | --- | | **Dashboard** | Held conversations are excluded from the *Mine* and *Waiting* counters, so parked work does not inflate your workload. | | **Conversation timeline** | Entering and leaving a hold appear in the resolved conversation's timeline, including how long it was held for and why it ended (timer or customer reply). | | **Reports** | Conversations can be filtered by the **On Hold** status in [Analytics](./analytics.md). | | **Audit log** | Every hold and every release writes an entry — who parked it, until when, and what ended it. A release by the timer is recorded as a system action. Releases caused by a customer reply are recorded on the conversation itself, not in the audit log, because they happen on the busiest path in the platform. | | **AI Copilot** | Still available inside a held conversation. On hold means parked, not closed. | | **Studio** | A **Conversation Changed** trigger fires when a conversation enters or leaves a hold. The trigger's status filter offers *any*, *opened* and *resolved* only, so use *any* and read the conversation's status inside the flow. | | **Webhooks** | Emits `conversation.on_hold` and `conversation.on_hold_released`. | :::note Studio cannot put a conversation on hold The Studio **Change Conversation** action can set Open, Pending or Resolved — not On Hold. A hold carries a deadline and an owner, so it is an agent action. ::: --- ## Limitations | Limitation | Detail | | --- | --- | | No extend | Change a deadline by releasing and re-holding. | | No per-agent queue | The On Hold queue is account-wide; use the **Assigned agent** filter to narrow it. | | Maximum 365 days | Longer than that is rejected. | | Minimum one minute | A time in the past, or less than a minute away, is rejected. | | Not settable from Studio or the AI Agent | Agents (or an Admin) put conversations on hold. | | Replying does not release | Only the timer, a customer reply, or an explicit release ends a hold. | | Resolved conversations cannot be held | Reopen first. | ## Troubleshooting | Symptom | Cause and fix | | --- | --- | | A held conversation did not come back at its deadline | Holds are swept once a minute, so allow about a minute. If it is much later than that, contact your administrator — the platform's minute schedule may not be running. | | The time I picked is not the time shown on the button | The deadline is calculated in the **business** timezone and displayed in **your** timezone. Both are correct. See [Which timezone is used](#which-timezone-is-used). | | The **On Hold** button is missing | The conversation is resolved. Reopen it first. | | "Reopen the conversation before putting it on hold" | You are on a resolved conversation. | | "Only the assigned agent or an admin can put this conversation on hold" | Take the conversation first, or ask an Admin. | | "Pick a time at least a minute from now" | The custom time is in the past or too close. | | A customer replied but the conversation is still on hold | Reload the page. If it persists, the message may not have reached Teloring — check the inbox connection in [The Ring](./ring/overview.md). | | I cannot find my held conversations | They are in **Conversations → On Hold**, not in Mine. Filter by **Assigned agent** to see only yours. | ## Related - [Conversations](../getting-started/conversations.md) — the queues, filters, and everyday handling workflow. - [Teams](./teams.md) — routing conversations to a group instead of one person. - [Settings](./settings.md) — where the business timezone is set. - [Analytics](./analytics.md) — reporting on conversation statuses.