Using Kayako's Android app to respond to customers

Delivering quick and personal support is much easier when you don't have to be at your desk to do it. Kayako's mobile apps let you review and respond to conversations from your phone or tablet.

Kayako apps are free and available for both iOS and Android devices. In this article we'll focus on the Android app, which you can download to your Android phone or tablet from the Google Play store.

NOTE: If you're an iOS user, you might want to try our article about the Kayako iOS app.

Read on for an introduction to the main features and settings of the Kayako Android app, and instructions for replying, updating, and deleting conversations.

Understanding how Kayako for Android works

The Kayako mobile app is designed to give you quick access to all of your conversations. You can reply to, update, and delete conversations, in order to provide timely customer support, even when you're away from your computer.

Once you've installed it on your Android device, the app will prompt you to enter your Kayako URL, username, and password.

You'll find all of the same views and conversations you're used to seeing the browser. Tap on a view to see its list of conversations, and tap on a conversation to open it up. 

You can catch up on the conversation's history, send a reply, post a private note, apply macros, or update any of the normal conversation properties from the sidebar. 

Back out in the inbox, the gear icon will take you to the app's settings where you can modify your notification settings, sign out of the app, or reach out to Kayako support. 

Now that you know what you'll find in the app, let's look at how to use it. 

Replying to and updating a conversation

After logging in to the Kayako app, you'll see the inbox view where all of your active and assigned conversations are listed. Below are the steps to reply and update a conversation in your inbox. 

NOTE: To use the Kayako mobile app, you will need an agent or administrator account to log in with.

1. Launch the Kayako app and sign in to your account.
2. Tap to open a conversation.
3. To review and update the conversation's properties, tap the information (ℹ︎) button on the top-right side of the screen. 
4. On this screen, you can review and update the conversation's Assignee, Status, Type, Priority, Tags, and custom fields.
5. Tap the ✔ or Update Conversation button to save your changes. 
6. When you're ready to reply, tap the Reply bar at the bottom of the screen to start composing your message.
7. Once you've finished writing your reply, tap the blue Send icon to send your message to the customer.
8. You can also send a file attachment, by tapping the + button and selecting a file to send.

If you need more help sending a response, read our article about replying to support conversations. 

Adding a private note to a conversation 

In addition to replies and updates, you can also add private notes that only your team will be able to see.

1. Launch the Kayako app and sign in to your account.
2. Tap to open a conversation.
3. To add a note to a conversation, long-press the blue Send button to bring up the channel picker.
4. Tap the drop-down menu and select Note from the list. This will change the Send button into the yellow Note button.
5. Type the note's content and tap Send to post the note.

If you need more help adding a private note, read our article on adding notes.

Using a macro to reply to or update a conversation

Macros let you automate common conversation replies and updates, and you can use them when responding to customers from the Android app.

1. Launch the Kayako app and sign in to your account.
2. Tap to open a conversation.
3. Tap the + button and choose your macro from the dropdown.
4. You'll see the macro reply copy appear in the reply bar, and any updates will appear in the conversation properties
5. Make any changes to the default reply copy and tap Send to post the reply and update the conversation properties.

If you need more help, read our user guide article on macros.

Trashing or restoring conversations

You can trash conversations – either in bulk or individually – to clear out spam from the queue. You can also restore conversations that were trashed by mistake. 

To trash one or more conversations from within a view:

1. Launch the Kayako app and sign in to your account.
2. Tap a view to see the list of conversations.
3. Long-press to select a conversation and tap any others you want to trash. 
4. Tap the trash icon to trash the selected conversations.
5. On the confirmation screen, tap Trash conversations.

To delete a conversation from within the conversation window:

1. Launch the Kayako app and sign in to your account.
2. Tap to open a conversation.
3. Tap the menu icon at the top-right side of the screen and select Trash conversation. 
4. On the confirmation screen, tap Trash conversation.

To restore a trashed conversation:  

1. Launch the Kayako app and sign in to your account.
2. Open the sidebar menu and tap the Trash view. 
3. Open a trashed conversation and tap the menu (...) icon. 
4. Select Restore conversation.