Messages
The Conversation view inside the Lead Details dialog is where you read the full message thread with a customer and send replies. It shows every inbound and outbound message in order, with indicators for who or what sent each message, plus a composer at the bottom with sending, scheduling, and quick-reply tools.
Getting here
In NZ Leads, go to Leads and click any row to open the Lead Details dialog. The Conversation view is the main tab.
Reading the thread
Messages appear as bubbles in chronological order. Each message shows:
- Speaker — whether it came from the customer, your business, or the system.
- Timestamp — when the message was sent or received.
- Attachments — inline previews for images (Yelp) or file links (Thumbtack).
Message-type indicators
Some outbound messages have a small icon next to them that tells you how they were sent:
- Purple brain icon — the message was generated by the AI assistant.
- Gray robot icon — the message came from a predefined template.
Messages sent by a teammate manually don’t carry an icon.
Scheduled messages in the thread
A message that’s been scheduled to send later shows up inline at its planned send time with a timer icon and a Cancel button. Clicking Cancel removes it from the queue before it sends. Once the scheduled time passes and the message is sent, the timer icon goes away and it displays like any other sent message.
Attachments by platform
- Yelp — image attachments preview inline in the thread.
- Thumbtack — file attachments appear as downloadable links.
- Facebook / Instagram / Google Local Ads — text conversations; attachment support depends on what each platform allows.
The composer
The composer sits at the bottom of the Conversation view. Type your reply in the textarea — messages must be at least three characters long to send.
The Messages-tab composer has four tools: Send, Send scheduled, Save as Quick Reply, and Open Quick Replies. This is different from the Memos tab, which has a simple Add button only — no sending, scheduling, or quick replies.
Send
The primary button. Clicking Send delivers the message to the customer immediately on the source platform. While the message is on its way, a brief “sending…” state is shown until the message reflects back in the thread.
Send scheduled
Opens a dialog where you pick a delay — minutes, hours, or days — before the message goes out. Useful for replying to a late-night inquiry at a more natural time, or for spacing out a follow-up.
When you schedule a message this way, it appears in the thread with a timer icon and a Cancel button until it sends.
Pick a scheduled-message template
A shortcut to apply one of your saved Scheduled Messages — templates you’ve set up in your user settings with both the text and a timing rule. Applying a template sets the lead’s status to Scheduled Messages and queues the text to send per the template’s timing.
See Scheduled Messages for managing the library.
Save as Quick Reply
Saves whatever you’ve typed in the textarea to your personal Quick Replies library so you can reuse it on other leads.
See Quick Replies for managing the library.
Open Quick Replies
Opens your Quick Replies library in a picker. Click a reply and its text populates the textarea so you can edit before sending. Quick replies support the placeholder #customer_display_name#, which is replaced with the lead’s customer name when the message sends.
Header actions
At the top of the Lead Details dialog:
- Lead status — the same status dropdown as on the table row. Change the lead’s status without leaving the dialog. See Lead Statuses.
- AI Conversation toggle — appears on sources where the AI is configured to send more than one message. Turn it off to stop the AI from replying on this specific lead while keeping it on for everyone else. When the AI has already reached its configured message limit on this conversation, the toggle is disabled — the AI won’t send any more messages on this lead regardless of the toggle, and you’ll need to take the conversation over manually.
Footer actions
Underneath the conversation:
- Mark as Unread — flags the lead as unread for you so you come back to it. Read/unread is tracked per teammate.
- Show in <Source> — opens the original thread on the source platform (for example, a Yelp lead opens the conversation on Yelp.com).
- Fetch New Messages — available on Thumbtack leads. Manually pulls the latest messages from Thumbtack to refresh the conversation. New messages also arrive in real time on their own, so you only need this if you want to force a refresh.
- Close — closes the dialog and returns to the Leads table.
What each platform supports for outbound replies
- Yelp — text only.
- Thumbtack — text and file attachments.
- Facebook Messenger — text.
- Instagram — text.
- Google Local Ads — text.
- Facebook Lead Ads — this source is one-way (form submissions only) — use the contact info on the lead to follow up by phone or email.
Sending a reply
Open the lead
Click the row in the Leads table to open the Lead Details dialog.
Type your message
Write your reply in the composer textarea. Minimum three characters.
Send or schedule
Click Send to deliver immediately, or Send scheduled to pick a delay in minutes, hours, or days.
Confirm delivery
The message appears in the thread. While it’s sending, a short “sending…” state is shown; once the source platform confirms, the message becomes a normal sent message.
When a send fails
If the source platform rejects the outbound message — for example, because the connection has expired or the conversation has been closed on the platform side — an inline error appears on the lead explaining the reason. Re-authorize the source or address the specific error, then try the send again.
Expired authorization. If you see repeated send errors on leads from the same source, the source’s connection to the platform probably needs to be refreshed. Open the Sources page, find the affected source, and reconnect it.
Questions? Email support@nzleads.com.