Connect Support vs. Live Agent Chat (Advanced Work Assignment) + Is Connect Support going to be deprecated?

[Chris D]

I've heard a rumor that Connect Support may be deprecated in a future release (i.e. New York) and completely replaced by Agent Chat from Advanced Work Assignment (AWA)... is there any merit to this?

The only potential indication of this is the article "Migrate from Connect Support to Advanced Work Assignment and Agent Chat" but that pretty much makes it clear that the two tools are completely separate and have no technical overlap, even though they are very similar in functionality.

As it stands now with what I know of Connect Support and Agent Chat - we recently have been increasing use of Connect Support and will soon add on the Agent Workspace and AWA - I can't imagine Connect Support being replaced because it still has a important unique use case that Agent Chat can't handle: initiating chats outside the Virtual Agent. And not to mention several other differences and facts, like a) Agent Workspace is overkill for some groups that could use support chat, b) only Connect Support supports desktop notifications, c) Connect Support is easier to setup, d) Connect Support is a volunteer-based queue instead of using AWA for auto-assignments, etc.

It's definitely not ideal to have two concurrent support chat tools but the way I see it, Connect Support and Agent Chat have two specific use cases and until I hear that Connect Support is being deprecated, I don't want to toss it out and replace it with a different tool that can't even do some things that I'd consider core functionality. Is this wrong?

[MattSN · Accepted solution]

For anyone that comes across this:

https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/paris-servicenow-platform/page/use/collaboration/task/t_ActivateConnectSupport.html#t_ActivateConnectSupport

In Paris and future releases, Connect Support no longer receives enhancements or non-priority bug fixes. Consider migrating to ServiceNow® Advanced Work Assignment and Agent Chat in workspace to automatically assign chat requests and other work items to agents. For details, see Migrate from Connect Support to Advanced Work Assignment and Agent Chat.

*I couldn't even find the Connect Support plugin in a Paris PDI.

[Inactive_Us1585]

Thanks Matt! I was just wondering which one to use to meet my customer's "live chat" requirement. AWA it is, then!

[Craig Granier]

I too just found this.  Why?  Not everyone wants to use Virtual Agent.  Not everyone wants to use Agent Workspace.  Not everyone wants to use AWA.

ServiceNow, you have once again over-engineered something that worked perfectly well. 

How do I turn on Agent Support in a Paris instance.  Please tell me ServiceNow!

[Sam Santo]

Hey there,

Quick update -> We are encouraging customers to move from Connect Support to our new, modern solutions: Advanced Work Assignment (AWA) and Workspace Agent Chat.

Read my community article to learn more about the benefits of moving to AWA and Workspace Agent Chat. Read now!
Watch this pre-recorded webinar to learn more about how AWA and Workspace Agent Chat work. Watch now!

Starting in Paris, Connect Support is in a planned deprecation state which means that no new features will be delivered, new customers cannot activate the plugin, and only highly impactful bugs will be fixed. This enables us to focus on delivering more capabilities for AWA and Workspace Agent Chat in the future.

Thanks!