Manage chat settings for Slack

You can customize several settings based on how your team wants to work on requests and issues through Slack.

Associate a request type with a request channel

You can customize which request types show in a specific request channel. Use this setting if you have a request channel that should only have a few request types as options.

To associate request types with a request channel:

1. From your service project sidebar, select Channels, then Chat, then Configure.

2. From the Slack tab, find the request channel you’d like to manage. Select the header or pencil icon to open the settings.

3. Check Associate request types with this channel.

4. Select the request types to associate with the request channel.

   1. If you select no request types, all show in the channel, except for those you’ve hidden.

5. Select Save changes.

Create issues automatically

You can turn on automatic issue creation in request channels, which removes a step for your agents and requesters. This means that Assist turns any message posted in a request channel into an issue. Assist adds a lightning emoji (:lightning:) to the message to indicate automatic issue creation.

If any fields for the request type are required, the requester receives an automatic prompt to fill them out. If no fields are required, the message turns into an issue automatically as soon as it’s posted. To add or remove required fields, you can customize the request type.

To turn on automatic issue creation as a Jira admin:

1. From your service project sidebar, select Channels, then Chat, then Configure.

2. From the Slack tab, find the request channel you’d like to manage. Select the header or pencil icon to open the settings.

3. Check Automatically create issues from messages.

4. Select Save changes.

Customize bot messages

When an issue is created in chat, Assist sends an automated message to both the requester and the agent by default. You can customize and turn off these messages for each service project.

To customize bot messages:

1. From your service project sidebar, select Channels, then Chat, then Configure.

2. From the Settings tab, find the message you’d like to customize.

3. Enter the message in the text area. Use Slack markdown syntax for formatting, including emoji and line breaks.

4. To save, either select the checkmark or unselect the text area. If you don’t want to save changes, use the crossmark to exit.

5. Repeat for the other message if you’d like to customize it.

If you’d like to reset the messages to default, clear the text area by deleting everything and saving.

To turn off bot messages:

1. From your service project sidebar, select Channels, then Chat, then Configure.

2. From the Settings tab, find the relevant message and use the toggle to turn it off.

3. Repeat for the other message if you’d also like to turn it off.

Hide a request type in Slack

You can hide the request types that show during issue creation. This means that when someone tries to raise a request in Slack, they won’t see that type as an option.

If someone raises a hidden request type a different way, like by email or the portal, the issue still appears in the linked agent channel. This means agents can still work on these issues in Slack, and requesters can interact with the Assist bot.

To hide request types as a Jira admin:

1. From your service project sidebar, select Channels, then Chat, then Configure.

2. Go to the Request types tab.

3. Select the request type you’d like to hide.

4. Check Hide this request type during issue creation in chat.

5. Select Save changes.

Manage request approvals

By default, request approvals are active in chat. This means approvers receive a message from Assist when a request requires their approval, and they can take action directly from Slack.

If an approver group is assigned a request, they won’t receive notification in Slack and need to take action from email or Jira Service Management.

To turn off request approvals:

1. From your service project sidebar, select Channels, then Chat, then Configure.

2. From the Settings tab, turn off the Approvals in chat toggle.

Learn more about approvals in Jira Service Management.

Set up emoji shortcuts

Emoji shortcuts allow your agents to quickly perform actions on Slack messages by adding emojis with the reaction feature.

By default, chat has two emoji shortcuts set up:

• marking a message with the ticket emoji (:ticket:) creates an issue

• marking a message that’s been turned into an issue with the eyes emoji (:eyes:) assigns the agent to it

You can create additional emoji shortcuts to transition an issue between statuses or set a field value. To create new shortcuts:

1. From your service project sidebar, select Channels, then Chat, then Configure.

2. Navigate to the Emoji shortcuts tab.

3. Select Add shortcut. A menu pops up where you can build your emoji shortcut.

4. Select the emoji to use, then you can select if you want to transition the status or set a field value.

5. Select the new status or the field value, then select Save changes.

To edit or delete an existing emoji shortcut, hover over it and select the pencil icon to edit or the trashcan icon to delete.

Update issues privately

Depending on the service project, you may want to turn on private updates for issues. When activated, all issue updates, like comments and status changes, send via private direct message with the requester, rather than posting publicly in the request channel.

If someone adds a comment to the thread in the request channel, Assist deletes that message and sends a whisper privately to the user telling them to navigate to their direct messages with the bot.

To turn on private updates as a Jira admin:

1. From your service project sidebar, select Channels, then Chat, then Configure.

2. Navigate to the Settings tab.

3. Turn on the Private updates setting.