Using Sidebar

You can create a Sidebar discussion for a task-based or interaction record from either a configurable workspace or a Next Experience Core UI record page.

Before you begin

Role required: users with access to the record associated with the Sidebar discussion

Procedure

1. Navigate to the workspace in which you want to start a Sidebar discussion.
   If you want to initiate a Sidebar discussion in a Customer Service Management (CSM) workspace, the CSM plugin for that workspace must be activated.
2. Select the list icon .
3. From Lists, navigate to and select the case, interaction, or incident for which you would like to start a Sidebar discussion.
4. On the Details screen, you can start a new discussion or join an existing discussion by selecting Discuss.
   • If the Sidebar discussion exists, the corresponding discussion dialog appears.
   • If a Sidebar discussion doesn't exist, the Start a Sidebar discussion dialog appears. Fill out the fields and then select Start discussion:

     

     • Record number - the task or incident number associated with the Sidebar discussion.
     • Subject - this field is pre-populated with the record's short description. If the Subject starts with a number in parentheses, the number indicates what number this discussion is for the record. For example, if the subject line has "(2) Email issue," the "2" indicates this is the second discussion for the email issue record. You can edit or add to the Subject field.
     • Add participants - if an assignment group was entered for this case/interaction/incident, this field is pre-populated with the members of the assignment group. You can also manually enter the participants you would like to include in the discussion. Only users who have access to the record can be added as participants. For more information, see Configuring Sidebar member query.
     • Include a brief message for participants - enter a short message for the participants of the Sidebar discussion.
5. To return to a previous Sidebar discussion, you can select the Discussion icon or select one of the tabs in the overflow menu.
6. After a discussion has been started, you can edit and delete messages.

   Option	Description
   Edit a message	Select the More options icon next to the message and Edit message. The message appears in an Editing window where you can change the text. You can only edit messages that you've sent. You can only edit one message at a time. If you change the attachment of a message that you've sent, both the old and new attachments display. If a message you've sent contains a URL, you can delete the message but you can't edit it.
   Delete a message	Select the More options icon next to the message and Delete Message. A dialog displays asking if you’re sure you want to delete your message. Select Delete to delete the message or select Cancel to leave the message. You can only delete messages that you've sent. After you delete a message, a notice with the date and time the message was deleted displays. If you delete a message that mentions someone using @mention, then that @mention is also deleted. You can't undo a deletion, after you delete a message it's gone.

7. To call out a user, enter @user (where user is the name of the user).
   • If you don't know the user's name, enter @ to display a list of users and select someone from that list.
   • Only users who have access to the underlying record display in the list.
   • The list is divided into users who are currently participating in the discussion (participants) and users who aren’t (non-participants).
   • The user is notified that they were mentioned in a Sidebar discussion message. The Sidebar discussions chat icon displays a number indicating unread messages or mentions.
     
     
     
   • If the user selects the Mentions tab, the messages in which the user was mentioned using @user display.
     
     
     
   • If the user selects the message preview card, the corresponding message displays with the exact message containing the @mention highlighted.
   • If Sidebar and Microsoft Teams are integrated, Microsoft Teams users are differentiated from Sidebar users with a Microsoft Teams icon.
8. When you’re finished, close or exit the discussion.
   • To close the discussion dialog (but not exit the discussion), select .
   • To exit the discussion, select Leave discussion.