---
key: set-who-covers-unassigned-conversations
title: Set who is told about unassigned conversations
audience: staff
section: settings/communications
routes: ["/settings/org/communications-workflow"]
permissions: ["org.notifications.configure"]
features: ["settings.org.communications-workflow"]
since: 0.0.1
updated: 0.0.1
status: published
summary: Choose who is notified about unassigned texts, emails, calls and voicemails, whether a team hears about them too, and how long a callback can wait before it is overdue.
keywords: [unassigned, coverage, who gets notified, handoff, reassign, mentions, team routing, response time, late reply, SLA]
related: [set-up-escalation-for-late-conversations, choose-how-phone-and-email-links-open, work-your-communications-queue, find-unassigned-work]
---
In the sidebar, open **Settings**, then choose **How Links Open** under **Communications**. The page address is `/settings/org/communications-workflow`. The page title reads **Communications Workflow**; the sections you want are **Family policy** and **Workflow defaults**.

## Before you start

- Your role needs permission to change organization notification settings; otherwise the sections are **Read-only**.
- Everything here saves on its own. The pill on **Workflow defaults** moves from **Autosave queued** to **Saving** to **Saved**, and covers **Family policy** too.
- While nobody owns a text, call or voicemail, the people told about it (the coverage group) are everyone assigned to that phone line. For an email, they are the members of that inbox who get its notifications. Change who that is under **Manage phone lines** and **Manage email inboxes** near the top of the page.
- Choosing a team needs access to schedule crews, because teams here are the crews set up under Scheduling. See [[create-a-crew]].

## Steps

1. Under **Family policy**, work through **Texts**, **Email**, **Calls** and **Voicemails**. Turn each family on, and turn on **Notify coverage** so its coverage group hears about items nobody owns yet.
2. On **Calls** and **Voicemails**, set **Default SLA minutes**: how long a callback can wait before it counts as overdue. On **Texts** and **Email** this box has no effect today. **Schedule SLA escalation** sends late items through your escalation steps; see [[set-up-escalation-for-late-conversations]].
3. Under **Workflow defaults**, turn on **Team routing** if a team should hear about unowned work. Members of the team an item is assigned to are then told while no person owns it.
4. To add one team to every unowned item, pick the **Default team** and turn on **Prefer team coverage**.
5. Turn on **Auto-follow when mentioned** if people mentioned in a conversation should follow it from then on. Anyone who saved their own choice keeps it.

## What you see

- The pills near the top of the page read **Escalation on** or **Escalation off**, **Team routing on** or **Team routing off**, and the default view.
- Team routing widens who is told. It never replaces the person who finally owns the item; the owner is always a person.
- Once someone owns an item, coverage stops: the owner and the people following it are told instead.

## If something looks different

- **Keep previous assignee following**, **Notify the new assignee**, **Unassigned routing** and **Default subscriptions view** are saved, but today a reassignment starts from each person's own choices, and **My Queue** opens on the list each person picked. **Open personal overrides** opens your own.
- The **Default team** search says **Schedule crew access required**: your role cannot read crews, so ask your admin or have someone with that access pick the team.
- No teams appear: no active crews exist yet. Create one under Scheduling first.
- A teammate on the line was not told: someone already owned the item, the family or its **Notify coverage** is off, or they muted it. See [[check-who-was-notified-about-a-conversation]].

[[route:/settings/org/communications-workflow|Open Workflow settings]]