New to dynamic assignment? Read our overview article here.

Release Unhandled Replies is a setting in the Assignment Management section of every campaign. When turned on, it will automatically release any reply from a texter if the texter hasn’t responded within a period of time that you set.

Screenshot of the feature in Assignment Management. 

Spoke will default to releasing replies that have been unhandled for 60 minutes, but the number of minutes is entirely up to you. We recommend setting the timer to no shorter than 20 minutes to give texters enough time to handle their responses themselves.

Why would I turn this on?

The Release Unhandled Replies feature is particularly effective when used together with the Dynamic Assignment for Replies feature. As conversations are being released automatically, they become available to texters who click on the dynamic assignment for replies link. By using these features in tandem, you can greatly speed up your response times to contacts. In addition, we’ve found that texters can really appreciate knowing that they’re not chained to their texts, because someone else will be able to handle them if they’re not able to reply at that moment.

Using this feature also reduces the need to manually unassign replies in Message Review. If your organization uses the Done for the Day feature to allow texters to release their conversations (described in the Settings section here), the Release Unhandled Replies feature is a useful catch-all for those instances when texters forget to release their texts when they’re finished texting.