# Create a Message Queue

A message queue pools a set of agents so that conversations arriving on your message channels are distributed among them instead of landing on one person. This spreads the workload and shortens the time customers wait for a reply. Follow the steps below to build a queue and add its agents.

## Limits

How many message queues you can create, and how many agents each one holds, depends on the number of extensions on your system:

| Extensions (N) | Message queues | Agents per queue |
|----------------|----------------|------------------|
| N ≤ 50 | 16 | 25 |
| 50 < N ≤ 200 | 32 | 60 |
| N > 200 | 64 | 120 |

## Before you start

Your system must be running firmware **84.20.0.21** or later.

## Create the queue

1. Sign in to the PBX (Private Branch Exchange, your hosted phone system) web portal and open **Messaging > Message Queue**.
2. Click **Add**.
3. In the **Name** field, enter a name that makes the queue easy to recognize.
4. Under **Chat Assignment Mode**, choose how sessions are handed to agents.

   ![Chat assignment mode options for a message queue](/images/pbx/message-group-chat-mode.png)

   | Mode | What it does |
   |------|--------------|
   | Manual Pickup | Every agent can see and reply to messages until one agent clicks **Pick Up** to take ownership of the session. |
   | Auto-Pickup | Every agent can see the messages, and the first one to reply automatically takes the session. |
   | Disable Pickup | Every agent can see and reply to messages, and no one can take ownership of a session. |

   :::tip
   Before you turn on **Auto-Pickup**, let everyone in the queue know how it works. Because the first reply claims the session, agents who are not expecting this can end up picking up chats by mistake.
   :::
5. In the **Agents** section, move the extension users you want on the team from the **Available** list into the **Selected** list.

   ![Moving extension users into the selected agents list for a message queue](/images/pbx/select-message-queue-agents.png)
6. Click **Save**.

Every extension user in the **Selected** list is now an agent of the queue.

## What to do next

:::note
Building the queue and adding agents does not route anything on its own. Incoming chats reach the queue only after you set it as a channel number's inbound message destination, as described below.
:::

Point a channel number at this queue so its incoming messages are delivered here. Open **Messaging > Message Channel**, click the edit icon ![Edit icon](/images/pbx/edit.png) next to the channel, go to **Messaging Settings**, and set the queue as the inbound message destination.

![Setting a message queue as the inbound destination for a channel number](/images/pbx/set-dest-to-queue.png)