Conversation timeout does not work in MS Teams?

[JarenHamblin-Molina]

Hi everyone!

I have noticed that the conversation timeout does not work when chatting with the bot through Teams.

I have set the conversation timeout to 5 minutes and am simultaneously chatting with the bot through a webchat and in Teams. After 5 minutes of inactivity, the webchat receives the message "This conversation has timed out". I would expect the same to happen using the bot in Teams, but it does not.

Is anyone else facing this?

Thanks,

Jaren

[#2 · Accepted solution]

@JarenHamblin-Molina 

Hi, After thinking about this, I believe this is the correct behavior. 

The Teams channel is an authenticated experience, and by design conversation threads persist. For example, if you chat with a contact you can see the full history of conversations you had with that person. The same is true with the bot and the conversation persist, so the concept of conversation timeout does not make sense. 

I hope that helps. Regards, Adam

[#3]

Thanks @Adam Walker , this makes sense.

The situation I am running into is when a Teams conversation with the bot is left open, mid-scenario. For example, the bot displays a prompt with a couple of choices, the user leaves for an extended period of time, and eventually comes back to the chat asking the bot something completely unrelated. The bot responds along the lines of "I didn't understand. Please choose an option from the list" because it is still waiting for a respond the to original prompt. In this situation, it would be nice to have the conversation timeout feature. 

Can you suggest any approach to workaround this?

Thanks,

Jaren

[#4]

@JarenHamblin-Molina 

Consider using interrupting scenarios. This allows end user to change the context of the current conversation. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/HealthBot/bot_docs/interruptions

Alternatively, you can advise the user there is a "Cancel" command. Cancel will break the current scenario and return the root of the bot. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/HealthBot/bot_docs/cancelling