Hello @OneEagle,

See please my answers below:

How Messenger can be used for member support

Messenger allows you to create:

• Private conversations
• Group chats
• Support-style threads where members can message an admin or a specific profile.

Using Organizations as Support Departments

In UNA, an Organization is also a profile type, which means:

• An organization can initiate and receive Messenger conversations just like a regular user profile.
• An organization can have multiple members inside it.
• All members of the organization can reply on behalf of the organization, using the organization’s name and identity.

This gives you a simple way to simulate “departments.”

Example:

1. Create an organization called Support (or Billing, Accounts, etc.).
2. Add all staff members as members of this organization.
3. Allow users to start a direct chat with this Support organization.
4. Any staff member inside the organization can respond as Support.

Live Chat / In-App Messaging

Messenger works in real time, so it can function as in-app chat:

• Users can instantly message the Support profile or organization.
• Support agents see messages immediately.
• Multiple agents can answer via the same organizational identity.

It's not a full ticketing system (no auto-assigning or queues), but for general support it works well.

Advanced Features (Optional)

If you need:

• Department routing
• Ticket IDs
• Queue management
• Auto-assignment of support agents
• Structured support workflows

these features would require custom development.

Hello @OneEagle,

Thank you for your detailed questions - I will go through each point and also offer an additional option using Spaces, which may fit your needs better.

1) Do I need to create separate organization profiles for each department?

Yes - with the current UNA Messenger logic, each organization profile functions as an independent "entity" for conversations. So if you want 5 departments (Billing, Accounts, Tech Support, etc.), this would mean 5 separate organization profiles.

2) Using Spaces to organize support (additional option)

There is another approach that may work well for you:

You can create a Space named, for example, Support, and add all your support agents as Space members (see my screenshorts).

Then:

1. On the Space view page, you can place a Messenger block.
2. You can restrict access to this page for specific membership levels (only those who should be able to contact support).
3. On this same page, you can create multiple conversations, each with its own title such as:

• Billing
• Accounts
• Advertising
• Technical Support

Messenger (in the latest version) allows multiple conversations attached to the same page, but very few people use this feature, so it's not widely known.

These conversations will also appear on the main Messenger page under the corresponding Space "group."

Important note:

Conversations inside a Space are not direct, meaning all members who have access to the Space page will see them. All support agents will receive notifications for new messages as long as they are members of the Space.

3) Can Messenger show categories (e.g., Billing, Accounts, etc.) before starting the chat?

Not by default. Messenger does not have a built-in system of categories or routing. If you need a category selector, this would require custom development.

4) How do notifications work for Organization or Space conversations?

Reading messages as an Organization: When a user is logged in on behalf of the Organization profile, they act as a single unified identity. So if this user opens/reads a message the message is marked as read for the Organization. It means other Organization members will NOT see the unread notification, because from Messenger's point of view, the Organization has already read it (regardless of which specific member opened it).

Reading messages inside a Space: In Spaces, conversations are not handled under a single shared identity.

Each Space member acts as an individual participant. So If one agent reads the message inside a Space conversation, other agents will still see their own unread notifications until they open the message personally.

5) Can I restrict which membership levels can contact support?

You can use UNA permissions to make the support conversation(s) available only to specific membership levels and you can just close support page/group/spaces for some membership levels.

6) About a traditional "Live Support" module (departments, ticket IDs, queues, auto-assignment, etc.)

Such a module can be developed, ideally as an external module built on top of Messenger.

However, features like:

• Department routing
• Ticket IDs
• Queue management
• Auto-assignment of agents
• Structured workflows

require detailed planning and are significantly more complex than standard Messenger usage. If you need time estimates, we would need more details about your desired workflow and you can contact me directly via Messenger.