Merging threads - Productlane Help center

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Overview

Merging combines two threads from the same contact into one. Use it when a customer opens a second conversation about something already tracked in an existing thread, duplicate emails create separate threads, or a live chat and an email end up as two threads for the same issue.

How to merge

Open the command palette (⌘ + K), search for Merge into, and pick the target thread.
Or open a thread, click the ... menu in the top bar, and choose Merge thread.

Both actions ask you to pick the target thread the current one should merge into.

Requirements

The thread you are merging (the source) must have a contact. Threads without a contact can't be merged.
The source and target must belong to the same contact. You can't merge into a thread from a different person.
A thread can't be merged into itself.

If any of these checks fail, you stay on the source thread and see a message explaining why, instead of being navigated away.

What happens to the source and target

Messages, internal comments, activity history, tags, and linked Linear issues and projects move from the source to the target.
Customer requests (the Linear entries created from a thread) move to the target too. If the target already has a request linked to the same Linear issue or project, the source's duplicate request is removed from Linear instead of left behind.
If the source has a live chat session and the target has none, the session is reassigned to the target.
The target's "last message" time is updated to whichever of the two threads had the more recent message.
The source thread is kept, marked as merged, and links to the target so opening it later still explains where its messages went. It no longer appears in your active inbox.

Reopening on merge

If the source thread still needed attention (it was unread, new, or unsnoozed) at the moment of the merge, the target is reopened: it's marked unread and moved back to New, even if it was previously processed or snoozed. This keeps an unanswered customer message from being hidden inside a thread you had already closed.

If the source had already been handled, the target's status doesn't change.

Requirements

The thread you are merging (the source) must have a contact. Threads without a contact can't be merged.

The source and target must belong to the same contact. You can't merge into a thread from a different person.

A thread can't be merged into itself.

If any of these checks fail, you stay on the source thread and see a message explaining why, instead of being navigated away.

What happens to the source and target

Messages, internal comments, activity history, tags, and linked Linear issues and projects move from the source to the target.

Customer requests (the Linear entries created from a thread) move to the target too. If the target already has a request linked to the same Linear issue or project, the source's duplicate request is removed from Linear instead of left behind.

If the source has a live chat session and the target has none, the session is reassigned to the target.

The target's "last message" time is updated to whichever of the two threads had the more recent message.

The source thread is kept, marked as merged, and links to the target so opening it later still explains where its messages went. It no longer appears in your active inbox.

Reopening on merge

If the source had already been handled, the target's status doesn't change.