Needs review: deciding who gets an answer

A connected inbox or WhatsApp number often belongs to a real person, and not everyone who writes to it is a prospect. Triage decides, before a conversation starts, whether a new sender should get an answer from your agent. When it isn't sure, it asks you.

How does the agent decide whom to answer?

Each connection with Answer incoming messages switched on has a choice, Who should the agent answer?, which applies to first-time senders:

• Smart triage: answers known contacts and genuine enquiries about what you sell, screens out newsletters, personal mail and sales pitches, and flags anything unsure for review.
• Everyone: every new message gets an answer.
• Known contacts only: anyone new is flagged for review.

The recommended choice is Everyone for a WhatsApp Business number, where people writing in are usually customers, and Smart triage for a mailbox or a linked personal phone.

Does it ever ignore a real prospect?

It's designed not to. Ignoring a prospect is the costly mistake, so whenever triage is in doubt it flags the message for review rather than ignoring it. Nothing is sent to a flagged sender until a person decides.

What do I do with a flagged message?

Open Work → Needs review. Each item shows the message and which connection it arrived on. You can:

• Reply with agent: the agent answers now, and the sender becomes a known contact;
• Ignore: just this message, everyone from this sender, or everyone at their domain (domains of free mail providers can't be ignored wholesale);
• Mark as known contact: nothing is sent now, but their next message is answered.

Messages still being assessed show Checking whether this needs an answer…. That usually takes from a few seconds to a minute.

What are sender rules?

Choosing Ignore for a sender or domain, or marking someone as known, creates a rule (Always answer or Always ignore) so you aren't asked again. Rules are listed on the Needs review page and can be removed at any time.

How will I know something's waiting?

A count appears on the connection's card and as a Needs review filter in Conversations, and workspace admins can receive a daily email when messages are waiting.

Does triage cost anything?

Smart triage uses the AI to assess a sender, which counts towards your workspace's daily AI allowance. If the allowance is used up, new senders are flagged for review instead of assessed, never silently dropped.