Conversation Flow
In Platica, a "conversation" is not an endless history. To make sure the AI keeps relevant context, the system organizes interactions into attention blocks or sessions.
Understanding this flow is vital for grasping how the AI remembers information and how response times are managed.
The 24-Hour Session Model
Platica segments interactions with your customers into windows of 24 hours of inactivity.
This segmentation has a semantic purpose: it lets you separate distinct topics over time. If a customer asked about sales last month and today asks about support, the AI understands these are different contexts and won't mix in the stale information.
Lifecycle and States
1. Started (Campaigns)
Happens when you proactively reach out to the customer with a WhatsApp template.
- Restriction: You can't send free-form text until the customer replies. When they reply, it moves to In Progress.
2. In Progress
The standard state. The 24-hour window is open, the AI is replying, and the context is active.
3. Assistance and Supervision
- Assistance: The AI agent is requesting human help.
- Supervision: A user took control.
4. Closed (Partial Close)
The goal was met (automatically or manually). The conversation leaves the main list, but if the customer writes again soon, the same thread is reactivated.
5. Expired (Final Archive)
Happens after 24 hours of inactivity in normal conversations. The context block is closed and the next message will create a new conversation.
Special Cases: Assistance after 24 Hours
There's an important exception to the auto-expiration rule: Conversations in the Assistance state.
If an AI requests help and more than 24 hours pass without anyone stepping in (for example, over a weekend), the system does NOT automatically expire the conversation. This is done for safety, to make sure no support request gets lost in the archive just because time passed.
That said, since 24 hours have gone by, the messaging session (especially in WhatsApp) has technically expired.
What happens and how to resolve it
If you try to take over an old assistance request (+24h), you'll run into this scenario:
Cannot reply directly
When you open the chat, you'll notice you can't simply type a reply in the current thread. The session window has closed.
Start a new conversation
The system will show you a prompt to send a reactivation message. When you send it, a new conversation (state Started) is created immediately, where you'll be able to send a WhatsApp pre-approved template to continue the conversation.
Manually clean up the assistance
The previous step opens a new chat, but the old conversation will remain in the assistance state in your Assistance folder. This happens because the system needs you to explicitly confirm that the old case has been handled.
Close the ghost ticket To clean up your inbox:
1) Go back to the old conversation (the one dated yesterday or earlier).
2) Open the three-dot menu
...in the top header.3) Click "Mark as closed".
Best practices: Always manually "Close" old assistance requests after reaching out to the customer in a new conversation. Otherwise, your "Assistance" inbox will fill up with cases you already handled.
Memory and Context Management
When a conversation expires or you force a new one to start (as in the case above):
- New Context: The AI starts with a "clean slate" to avoid confusion with past topics.
- Historical Memory: If you have memory enabled, the AI can still consult key data from expired conversations (name, preferences, purchase history) without dragging in the "noise" of the previous interaction.