# Assign and route conversations

Every conversation should have exactly one owner. Assigning conversations makes it clear who replies next, and stops two people answering the same customer.

## The conversation lifecycle

![A diagram of four states, New, Open, Waiting and Closed, with arrows between them and a dashed arrow from Closed back to Open when the customer replies](https://demo-doc-site.clevera.help/media/d203716a8f5c22a17434b097011b82d3e3eb92bce8223748ff8fd97a28046049.png "Conversations move through four states")

| State   | What it means                                       | Who acts next                           |
| ------- | --------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------- |
| New     | Just arrived, nobody owns it yet                    | Whoever triages the inbox               |
| Open    | Assigned to a person or team                        | The assignee                            |
| Waiting | Snoozed until the customer replies or a date passes | The customer                            |
| Closed  | Resolved                                            | Nobody, until the customer writes again |

## Assign a conversation

- Open the conversation and select the **Assignee** field, or press `A`.
- Pick a teammate, or a team to let anyone on it take it.
- To take it yourself, press `I`.

:::tip Collision detection
If a teammate is already typing a reply, you'll see their avatar and a _typing…_ label above the composer.
:::

## Route automatically

Assigning by hand works for small teams. Once you get more than a few dozen conversations a day, let rules do it. See [Guides](docs:section/dsec_4vxwrpft5akxwncp) for automations.

:::details Round robin vs. load balancing
**Round robin** hands conversations out in turn. **Load balancing** gives the next one to whoever has the fewest open conversations. Both skip people marked _away_.
:::