A ticket is a trackable support request that stays open until it's resolved, unlike a chat, which is a live, real-time conversation. If you're new to Text, understanding this difference is the first step to organizing your support work correctly.
What is a ticket, and how is it different from a chat?
A ticket is a support conversation that doesn't require both sides to be online at the same time. It works like an email thread — the requester and your team exchange messages back and forth — but with the structure a plain inbox can't give you: every ticket carries a status that shows exactly where it stands, a priority level that tells your team what to tackle first, and tags and an assigned owner so a request never gets lost between two people's inboxes. It's created once and stays open — sometimes for days — until the issue is solved. Tickets are ideal for requests that need investigation, multiple replies, or input from more than one teammate: the kind of back-and-forth a plain email thread quickly loses track of.
A chat, by contrast, is a live conversation that happens in real time, usually while a visitor is on your website. Chats are best for quick questions that a teammate (or your AI agent) can answer on the spot.
Both live in the same Inbox, and one can turn into the other: a teammate can create a ticket directly from an ongoing chat when a question needs more time or more people to resolve.
How tickets get created
A ticket can land in your Inbox in several ways:
Email. Every message sent to your connected mailbox or forwarding address becomes a ticket automatically once you've set up the Email channel
AI agent handoff. If your AI agent can't answer a question, or no teammate picks up a transferred chat within 30 seconds, it can create a ticket automatically so the request isn't lost. AI-created tickets can carry a prefix (like [AI]) in the subject so your team can spot them at a glance.
Manually. A teammate can create a ticket on a customer's behalf directly from the Inbox, or turn an ongoing chat into a ticket using the three-dot menu in the chat header.
Imported. If you're moving from our HelpDesk, your existing tickets come with you, so nothing from your history gets lost.
If you’re moving from another ticketing provider, you can import your tickets using our API
What are the ticket statuses?
Every ticket moves through a series of statuses that show where it stands. Text uses five statuses: Open, Pending, On hold, Solved, and Closed.
Open — A new or active ticket that needs a reply from you or your team. Every ticket starts here.
Pending — You've replied and are waiting to hear back from the requester. If they reply, the ticket automatically switches back to Open.
On hold — The ticket can't move forward right now — for example, you're waiting on another department or need more information before you can act.
Solved — The issue is resolved. If ticket rating is enabled, marking a ticket Solved sends the requester a feedback request.
Closed — Also resolved, but used when you don't want to send a feedback request.
What are ticket priorities?
Priority indicates how urgently a ticket needs attention. Text uses four priority levels: Low, Medium, High, and Urgent. Priority is internal only — requesters never see which level their ticket is assigned to.
You can set or change a ticket's priority from the ticket list or from the Ticket info panel inside the ticket, and update priority on several tickets at once using bulk actions
Ticket details
Open any ticket, and you'll see four main areas:
Requester — The customer's name, email, and (if collected) other contact details, shown at the top of the ticket and in the sidebar.
Thread — The message history in the middle of the screen. Use the composer at the bottom to send a Message (visible to the requester) or switch to Note to leave an internal comment — notes appear with a yellow background and are visible only to your team.
Sidebar — The Customer Details panel on the right. It holds Ticket info (status, priority, assigned teammate or team) and Ticket tags, which you can add, remove, or accept as AI-suggested.
Assignment — Assign or reassign a ticket to a specific teammate from the ticket list or the sidebar. If no one's assigned yet, it shows up as unassigned, so your team knows to pick it up.
Good to know
A reply from the requester automatically reopens a Pending, Solved ticket by switching its status back to Open.
Tickets with Pending, Solved, or Closed status are archived automatically after 60 days of inactivity — you can find them anytime in the Archive folder, and a new message from the requester brings them back to the main list.
Want tickets tagged, assigned, or prioritized automatically as soon as they're created? Set that up with ticket rules
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Open the ticket and set its status back to Open (or any other status) from the Ticket info panel — the same place you'd update priority. This matters because, unlike Pending or Solved, a Closed ticket doesn't reopen automatically just because the requester replies.
Yes. Open the Inbox, click the + button next to the Inbox header, and select New ticket. This is useful when you want to document an issue proactively or file a request on a customer's behalf.
No. Priority is an internal field your team uses to decide what to work on first. Customers never see the priority assigned to their ticket.
Yes. If a customer opens duplicate tickets for the same issue, you can combine them so the conversation and history live in a single thread. See how to merge tickets for the steps.
Yes, if the Handle tickets skill is turned on. Your AI agent can create a ticket when it can't answer a question or when a chat transfer to a human agent goes unanswered for 30 seconds.