1. [Help](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs) 2. [Conversations](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/colecoes/19377965-conversations) # How to distribute conversations among agents (Conversation distribution) How to set up the rule that automatically picks the agent when a conversation is sent to a team, company-wide or per team. Available on All plans Who can do it Administrator or manager Updated on November 3, 2026 [Conversations](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/colecoes/19377965-conversations) 1. [How to use and assign conversations](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/14499126-how-to-use-and-assign-conversations) 2. [How to send audio, images, documents and media from the Inbox](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/15353019-how-to-send-audio-images-documents-and-media-from-inbox) 3. [How to filter and sort the conversation queue in Nuvia](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/15353059-how-to-filter-and-sort-the-conversation-queue) 4. [How to distribute conversations among agents (Conversation distribution)](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/15705683-how-to-distribute-conversations-among-agents) 5. [How to rate AI replies in the Inbox](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/16108448-how-to-rate-ai-replies-in-inbox) 6. [How to print or save an entire conversation as a PDF](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/16414236-print-or-save-entire-conversation-as-pdf) 7. [How to use the closing reason for conversations](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/18174515-how-to-use-closing-reason-for-conversations) 8. [How to transfer a conversation between agents in Nuvia](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/14500664-how-to-transfer-conversation-between-agents) 9. [How to create and use quick replies in the Inbox](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/17313968-how-to-create-and-use-quick-replies-in-inbox) On this page 1. Open Conversation distribution 2. Where the rule applies: company or team 3. Who is included in the distribution 4. Before the rules: presence statuses 5. The 3 presence statuses 6. Impact on automatic distribution 7. The distribution rules 8. Away period (only in the “Least active” rule) 9. When the rule is applied **On this page9 sections** 1. Open Conversation distribution 2. Where the rule applies: company or team 3. Who is included in the distribution 4. Before the rules: presence statuses 5. The 3 presence statuses 6. Impact on automatic distribution 7. The distribution rules 8. Away period (only in the “Least active” rule) 9. When the rule is applied **Conversation distribution** defines how Nuvia picks the agent when a conversation is sent to a team. Instead of someone grabbing conversations by hand, you set a routing rule and the platform automatically selects the right agent on that team. **Available on:** All plans. **Who can do it:** Administrator or manager. Name change this screen used to be called **Lead distribution**. The new name is **Conversation distribution** — in the side menu, in the screen title and in the onboarding track. Only the name changed: the rules, the period field and the behavior stay the same. ## Open Conversation distribution 1. In the side menu, **click your profile icon** and select **Settings** 2. In the side menu, select **Conversation distribution** 3. The screen shows the current distribution rule in a central card 4. Choose where the rule applies (the whole company or a specific team), select the rule and click **Save** (or **Cancel** to go back to the last saved setup) ## Where the rule applies: company or team At the top of the card there's the **Apply to:** selector, with two options. - **Whole company** — this is the global rule. It applies to all teams that don't have their own rule. - **Specific team** — you choose a team from the list and decide whether it follows the company rule or has its own. When you select a team, the **Use own rule for this team** toggle appears: - **Off** — the team follows the company rule. The screen shows the global rule in read-only mode, with the **Set by company** label and the **Edit at company level** shortcut. - **On** — the team has its own rule, which **overrides the global one** for conversations sent to it. In the team list, the **Own rule** or **Company rule** label shows where each team's rule comes from. ## Who is included in the distribution Before any rule runs, the platform builds the candidate pool for that team. Only these are included: - Team members who **are not supervisors**; a supervisor is on the team to monitor, not to operate, and stays out of the rotation in every rule. - Members with an **active** account. **Deactivated or removed** users no longer receive conversations, even if they still show up listed on the team. What changed before, someone who had been deactivated stayed in the pool and could be picked; in the load-based rules they were even the most likely candidate, since they had no active conversations. The result was a conversation with a “ghost owner”: it disappeared from the **Unassigned** tab (because it had an owner) and no one took it. This doesn't happen anymore. ## Before the rules: presence statuses The platform automatically tracks each agent's presence status, based on their activity in Nuvia: ## The 3 presence statuses Status Color Meaning **Online** Green Connected and active (activity in the last 5 min) **Away** Yellow Connected but inactive (idle for 5+ min) **Offline** Red Disconnected ## Impact on automatic distribution Conversation distribution changes based on presence status and the rule chosen for the team. ## The distribution rules There are **five** rules, organized in two groups on the screen: **Presence** and **Workload**. Each one uses a different criterion to decide which agent gets the next conversation. - **By availability**: distributes randomly, prioritizing those who are **Online**; if no one is online, it considers those who are **Away** and, finally, the **rest of the team** (including those who are Offline). It always assigns to someone. - **Active only**: distributes **only among Online agents**. If no one is online, the conversation **waits for manual assignment** (it doesn't go to Away or Offline agents). - **Active and away**: picks randomly among those who are **Online or Away**, without prioritizing one over the other. **Offline agents never receive**: if no one is online or away, the conversation stays unassigned, waiting for someone to pick it up by hand. - **Least active**: sends the conversation to the agent with the **fewest active conversations** at the moment, balancing the team's workload. **It doesn't look at presence**: every agent on the team counts, including those who are Away or Offline. - **Equal per stage**: runs a balanced rotation based on the funnel stage, keeping similar volumes per person within each stage. **It doesn't look at presence**: every agent on the team is in the rotation, including those who are Away or Offline. ### Which statuses each rule considers RuleUses presence?Who can receive the conversationIf there's no “ideal” candidate **By availability** Yes Online (priority) → Away → anyone on the team (includes Offline) Always assigns — as a last resort, falls back to any agent on the team **Active only** Yes Online only The conversation waits for **manual assignmentActive and away** Yes Online **or** Away, with no priority between them. Offline never receives The conversation waits for **manual assignmentLeast active** No Any agent on the team: Online, Away **or Offline** Always assigns (to the one with the lowest load) **Equal per stage** No Any agent on the team: Online, Away **or Offline** Always assigns (to the next one in the rotation) In all of them, the pool is already filtered: supervisors and deactivated or removed users are left out before the rule runs. Tip use **By availability**, **Active only** or **Active and away** when first response time is critical; use **Least active** or **Equal per stage** when volume is high and you want to balance the team's workload, keeping in mind that these two don't filter by presence. ## Away period (only in the “Least active” rule) The **Away period** field appears and applies **only to the “Least active” rule**. It sets the time window used to count each agent's active conversations: only **open** conversations with activity **within that period** count. Conversations older than the window don't count as current workload. The value is configurable: **15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1, 2, 4, 6 or 12 hours** (default: 30 minutes). Warning this field does **not** change the agent's presence status (Online/Away/Offline) and does **not** appear in the other rules. It only tells the “Least active” rule which conversations still count as active workload. ## When the rule is applied The rule picks the agent **every time a conversation is sent to a team** — the platform chooses who on that team receives it. This happens when: - **A conversation is routed to a team**, for example, when the Smart Funnel sends the conversation to a team (**“Assign team”** skill / assign_team) or when an automation/integration directs the conversation to a team. This is the typical case of a new lead that the AI hands over to human agents. - **You assign a team manually** inside the conversation. - **A user leaves the account** (is deactivated or removed): the **open** conversations they had are reassigned by the same rule. This is the only situation where the platform redistributes conversations that already had an owner. See [How to deactivate and reactivate a user](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/16497565-how-to-deactivate-and-reactivate-a-user). It does **not** go through the rule when the destination is already a specific person: the **“Assign agent”** skill (assign_user) or manual assignment to an agent sends it straight to that user, with no rotation. The conversation starts out handled by the AI (Autopilot). Distribution among agents happens when the conversation is directed to a **team**, automatically (by the AI or an automation) or manually. The rule only chooses among the agents **on that team**; if the team has no eligible members, no one is selected and the conversation waits for manual assignment. Important automatic distribution applies to **new conversations**. Conversations already assigned aren't redistributed, with a single exception: when the owner is deactivated or removed from the account. To move a specific conversation, use **Assign agent** or **Assign team** inside the conversation. ## Frequently asked questions **Did anything change besides the screen name?** No. The screen is now called **Conversation distribution** (previously “Lead distribution”), and the text that said “lead” now says “conversation”. The rules, the away period field, the company or team scope and the distribution behavior stay exactly the same. **Can I have different rules for different teams?** Yes. In **Apply to: Specific team**, choose the team and turn on **Use own rule for this team**. That rule overrides the company rule for conversations sent to that team. Teams with the toggle off keep following the global rule. **Is there a rule that only assigns to people who are working, without falling back to offline?** Yes, two. **Active only** uses only those who are **Online**. **Active and away** accepts **Online and Away**, and never sends to those who are Offline. In both, if no one is eligible, the conversation waits for manual assignment instead of falling back to someone disconnected. **Does the “Active and away” rule balance the workload among agents?** No. It **picks randomly** among those who are Online or Away, without looking at how many conversations each one already has. If your goal is to balance workload, the workload rules are **Least active** and **Equal per stage** — which, on the other hand, don't filter by presence. **Does the “Least active” rule also distribute to agents who are Offline?** Yes. The “Least active” rule **completely ignores presence**: it only looks at who has the fewest active conversations in the configured window. An Offline agent counts normally and can get the conversation if they have the lowest load. The same goes for “Equal per stage”. Offline is different from deactivated: anyone whose account was deactivated or removed is left out of every rule. **Can a deactivated user receive conversations?** No. Distribution only considers team members with an **active** account. Deactivating or removing the person takes them out of the rotation, even if their name still shows up in the team list in some cases. **What happens if no agent is online?** It depends on the rule. In **Active only** and **Active and away**, the conversation waits for manual assignment. In **By availability**, the platform considers those who are Away and, if needed, the rest of the team (including Offline). In **Least active** and **Equal per stage**, presence doesn't matter: the conversation is assigned normally. **Does distribution also apply when the AI agent transfers to a team?** Yes. When the Smart Funnel uses the “Assign team” skill (assign_team), the platform applies exactly this distribution rule to choose the agent on the team. The “Assign agent” skill (assign_user), on the other hand, sends to a specific person and doesn't go through the rule. **Does distribution redistribute conversations that are already with an agent?** Generally not: the rule acts when new conversations arrive, and conversations already assigned stay with the current owner until they're reassigned manually. The **only exception** is when the owner leaves — when a user is deactivated or removed, their **open** conversations are reassigned automatically by the same rule, or left without an owner if no one is eligible. [PreviousHow to filter and sort the conversation queue in Nuvia](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/15353059-how-to-filter-and-sort-the-conversation-queue) [NextHow to rate AI replies in the Inbox](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/16108448-how-to-rate-ai-replies-in-inbox) Was this article helpful? ## Related articles - [How to use and assign conversations](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/14499126-how-to-use-and-assign-conversations) - [How to transfer a conversation between agents in Nuvia](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/14500664-how-to-transfer-conversation-between-agents) - [How to create and manage teams in Nuvia](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/15649230-how-to-create-and-manage-teams-in-nuvia) - [How to deactivate and reactivate a user](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/16497565-how-to-deactivate-and-reactivate-a-user) - [How to set your availability (Away or Unavailable)](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/18174522-how-to-set-your-availability-away-or-unavailable) [Conversations](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/colecoes/19377965-conversations) 1. [How to use and assign conversations](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/14499126-how-to-use-and-assign-conversations) 2. [How to send audio, images, documents and media from the Inbox](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/15353019-how-to-send-audio-images-documents-and-media-from-inbox) 3. [How to filter and sort the conversation queue in Nuvia](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/15353059-how-to-filter-and-sort-the-conversation-queue) 4. [How to distribute conversations among agents (Conversation distribution)](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/15705683-how-to-distribute-conversations-among-agents) 5. [How to rate AI replies in the Inbox](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/16108448-how-to-rate-ai-replies-in-inbox) 6. [How to print or save an entire conversation as a PDF](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/16414236-print-or-save-entire-conversation-as-pdf) 7. [How to use the closing reason for conversations](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/18174515-how-to-use-closing-reason-for-conversations) 8. [How to transfer a conversation between agents in Nuvia](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/14500664-how-to-transfer-conversation-between-agents) 9. [How to create and use quick replies in the Inbox](https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/17313968-how-to-create-and-use-quick-replies-in-inbox) ## Still need help? Customers reach support through the chat inside the platform. Not a customer yet? Talk to our team. [Talk to support in the platform](https://app.nuvia.ai) [I'm not a customer yet](https://nuvia.ai/en/contact) --- Source: https://nuvia.ai/en/docs/artigos/15705683-how-to-distribute-conversations-among-agents