A key use case for this API is the ability to create new threads. Right now (AFAIK) the only way threads get created is when the channel receives a new message.
This means the only way to create threads right now is to send an email to the connected inbox, and then listen on the conversation.creation event to get the threadId. This is obviously full of race conditions as we need to wait on the webhook (this is my current workaround - yuck).
I like to share our use case to create new threads via API:
Our company builds a software which allows our customers (B2B) to open support tickets from inside the software. We have recently switched from Jira to HubSpot for the end user support. Our software creates service tickets via the CRM api in the HubSpot ServiceHub. Our users also open service tickets by e-mail, these end up in a conversation inbox. A ServiceHub Ticket is automatically created for each new thread in the service inbox.
Compared with Jira this has two major disadvantages:
1) The conversation inbox provides the better UI to interact with our customers, but we have to use the ServiceHub UI because it shows both kind of tickets, the ones opend via API and the ones opened via e-mail. Then again we cannot just ignore the service inbox because some valid messages are tagged as spam in error. And our company is internationally distributed, with service teams in each regional office. As a result some tickets need to be assigned manually to the correct regional office, albeit we added logic to HubSpot workflows to detect the regional office automatically. Again, the conversation's UI is suited better for this task.
2) Our customers cannot see the initial request of tickets opened via API in the ServiceHub Customer Portal. That is a major culprit for our larger accounts, and as we are in a B2B business this is an issue.
Being able to create new threads via the conversations API would solve both issues.
@GSchlegel now that all of the INBOUND product announcements have happened, I wanted to invite you to take a look at Help Desk which is going into public beta soon. Here is the waitlist signup page.
Part of your challenge is that you don't yet have the conversations API functionality that you need. Another part is something that we've long heard, which is that support teams have to split their time between the Conversations Inbox, and Tickets/TicketsAPI/Ticket list and detail views in the CRM. Help Desk is the ticket-focused workspace for support teams that combines the best of tickets, communication channels, and the inbox into one place. My hope is that over time Help Desk help solves the problem of having to monitor multiple places for inbound inquiries.
It could be anything; I think we should push to broaden the vision of this API.
- What if I want to outbound someone as a follow-up or referral? I'd have no way of creating that thread. - What if someone DMs me on reddit, and I want to have those conversations via the inbox tool?
A related ask that might add more clarity: What about sending an inbound message as the contact actor, not just sending outbound as a team member. That would allow me to integrate Hubspot conversations with any social platform, which I think should be a goal. So far, the POST new message endpoint is basically just a complicated way to send an email and have it show up in HS
We intentionally omitted the ability to build new channels in Conversations as part of the initial release of these APIs (including posting inbound messages from contacts, or messages not over our existing channels of live chat, email, and facebook messenger).
We are planning on releasing APIs to enable that use case in the future, but we're still ironing out some of the details there to make sure new channels will work seamlessly with the rest of the inbox and the CRM. I don't have a timeline yet for when those APIs might be available, but hearing more about these use cases like integrating the inbox with social platforms is useful information for us.
Hi @fm-hcarvalho , no specific timelines to announce quite yet, but we are still planning on pulic APIs to add channels and messages to the Inbox, and making progress on the under-the-hood work to make it possible.
Hey @franseo, no, we don't have a timeline for this yet. This is more of a longer-term plan for us, since it involves integrations posting messages in Conversations that aren't sent/received through the existing channels that Conversations supports. We should be able to provide a more accurate timeline for this later in 2022
Hey @PWickham, I'm curious to know a bit more about your use case here. Are you trying to create threads as part of building some kind of "intake system" (e.g. creating threads for form submissions or something else that agents in the inbox would then action on)?
I can't speak for @PWickham, but we have a similar need. We're building a custom integration for a customer and they expressed a desire that our application act as a channel that can create new "conversations" (according to their requirements).
I'm a little new to this, so I'm unsure if a `conversation` is the same thing as a `thread` in Hubspot. But being able to create one from actions taken in our app is really important to them, and therefore us 😁.
Hi @haacked , I'm the Product Manager for these APIs. Similar to previous updates, we don't have any specific timelines to announce quite yet, but this sounds it might be the type of use case that our project seeks to enable. Would you be willing to get on a call with me some time so that I could learn more about you, this customer and their business, and the messagaging-related requirements for your application?
Hi! I'd be happy to jump on a call. What's the best way to privately reach out to you to pass on contact info? This week is obviously not good, but I can make next week work.
@EricHirsh I work with @haacked - we're hoping that we can bring our support for HubSpot in line with other systems that we integrate with on behalf of our customers. Like he mentioned, we've got one customer actively waiting for this but more in our pipeline who might need it since they are HubSpot customers.
