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Every conversation is kept. A chat is not just a transcript. It carries context, so what you asked earlier shapes how a follow-up is answered. Knowing when to continue a chat and when to start a new one is the difference between a useful follow-up and a confusing one.
How a chat carries context
Within a chat, SmartResearch answers against what has already been established. If you ask for overdue payables and then ask “and by vendor?”, the second question is understood as a refinement of the first. That is convenient until you change subject, at which point the earlier context can narrow an answer you meant to be broad.
Starting a new chat is how you reset the framing. It costs nothing and removes any doubt about what the answer was scoped to.
Manage your conversations
Table 1. Chat controls
Control |
What it does |
Use it when |
|---|---|---|
New Chat |
Starts a conversation with no history. |
You are changing subject, or you want a clean scope. |
Chats |
Opens the conversation list. |
You are looking for something you asked before. |
Search chats |
Finds an earlier conversation. |
You remember the question but not when you asked it. |
Recent |
Lists recent conversations in the sidebar. Reads No conversations yet until you ask something. |
You want to pick up where you left off. |
Reopen an earlier conversation
In the sidebar, select Chats, or pick an entry under Recent.
To narrow a long list, select Search chats and enter a term from the question you asked.
Open the conversation.
Continuing an old chat resumes its context. If the underlying data has changed since, ask the question again rather than relying on the figure already on screen. The answer was produced at a point in time, which its Data Stamp records.
A chat records the answer as it was, not as it is. Re-ask rather than re-read when the figure matters.
Scenarios
Table 2. Common situations
Situation |
What is happening |
What to do |
|---|---|---|
A follow-up returns a narrower answer than expected |
The chat context is still applying an earlier filter. |
Start a new chat and ask the question on its own. |
You cannot find an earlier conversation |
Recent shows only the most recent. |
Use Search chats against a term you used in the question. |
The sidebar reads “No conversations yet” |
Nothing has been asked from this account yet. |
Ask a question. The chat appears once an answer is produced. |
A figure in an old chat no longer matches |
The answer was correct when produced; the data has moved. |
Re-ask. Compare Data Stamps if you need to explain the difference. |
Related information
For more information, see Ask a Question.
For more information, see Read an Answer.