A new, Freshdesk-inspired interface for FreeScout. Refresh reworks the whole agent interface of FreeScout: a left navigation bar, ticket views with SLA badges, a dashboard, a properties panel next to each ticket, a Freshdesk-style reply editor, ajax actions everywhere and a phone version. It borrows Freshdesk's ergonomics, with a look of its own (slate and indigo, light borders, small radii), also applied to FreeScout's own pages: settings, profiles, customers, users, mailboxes and modules.
It is a single module: no core file is modified, nothing depends on the Customization module, and switching it off brings the stock FreeScout interface back.
- Installable app and push notifications on phones: Web Push.
- Helping customers on screen (co-browsing from the ticket): Cobrowse.
- Moving from Freshdesk with your whole history: Freshdesk Import.
- AI-drafted replies in the editor: Claude Assistant.
- Left bar with icons: Dashboard, Tickets, Contacts, Saved replies, Tags (when the Tags module is active), plus the entries of other modules (see For module developers). Your logo on top.
- Views panel: switching views, filters, sorting and pages happens in place (ajax), with browser history support.
- Search in the top bar with instant suggestions; Enter searches all tickets.
- Views, in the same order as Freshdesk: tickets I created, my new and open tickets, tickets I'm watching, undelivered messages, all tickets, all unresolved tickets; then unassigned, new, overdue, due today, open, pending, starred; trash and spam. Live counters.
- Saved views: save the current filters as a shared view.
- Filters panel: agents, statuses, priorities, types, tags, customer, created / closed period, resolution and first response due dates. Sort by date created, last modified, last customer response, due date, priority or status.
- Card layout with SLA badges (New, First response overdue, Overdue, Customer responded, Pending), a status line ("Customer responded 2 hours ago • Resolution due in 5 hours"), and priority / agent / status drop-downs you can change right from the list.
- Bulk actions bar (assign, status, tags, merge, delete) and CSV export of the current view.
- FreeScout's own folder pages (Unassigned, Mine, Starred…) open the equivalent view.
- Freshdesk-like conversation: "Name replied • 3 days ago (Mon 21 Sep 2026 13:43)", round avatars, notes in yellow, quoted history folded behind a "•••" button.
- Properties panel on the right: type, status, priority, agent, tags, resolution due date (editable), SLA summary, customer details and the customer's recent tickets. Update saves in place; closing a ticket takes you to the next one.
- Reply editor restyled after Freshdesk: tabs Reply / Note / Forward, recipients as chips, formatting toolbar, canned responses, attachments, drafts with edit / discard icons, and a send button with "Send and set as Pending / Closed / Open".
- Toolbar: reply, note, forward, close / reopen (ajax), star, merge, print, delete.
- Split ticket: move a message to a new ticket, with a note left in the original one.
- Inline tags field with suggestions and "Create …" (Tags module).
- Toasts instead of the green banners, with close button, "View" and "Undo".
- Dashboard: tiles (unresolved, overdue, due today, open, pending, unassigned), today's figures compared with yesterday (received, resolved, average first response time, resolved within SLA), unresolved tickets per agent, undelivered e-mails, tickets created per hour of the day.
- Contacts page: searchable list of customers with their phones, links to their tickets, CSV export.
- Phone version (under 768 px), modelled on the Freshdesk Android app: title bar, views drawer, sort and filter sheets, ticket cards, infinite scroll, long press to select, bottom tab bar, full-screen editor and properties.
- Installable app and push notifications: they moved to a separate module, Web Push, which also works without Refresh. With both modules, the installed app opens on the phone version and the notifications prompt sits above its tab bar.
English and French. Other languages can be added with a Resources/lang/<locale>.json file (English key =>
translation), plus Resources/lang/<locale>/labels.php for the few words FreeScout translates with another meaning,
and optionally Resources/lang/overrides/<locale>.php to reword FreeScout's own strings (the French file turns
"conversation" into "ticket", like Freshdesk).
- FreeScout 1.8 or newer.
- Tested with the Tags module; the Freshdesk-style Type and Priority fields are stored in the conversation data and filled by the Freshdesk Import module.
- Download the latest release and unzip it into the
Modulesfolder of FreeScout: you getModules/Refresh(the folder must have this name). - In FreeScout, Manage › Modules: activate Refresh.
- Optional: Manage › Settings › Refresh to set your SLA and logo.
- Optional: install Web Push for the installable app and push notifications.
To go back to the stock interface, deactivate the module. Its settings are kept.
Upgrading from Modern UI 1.x (this module's former name): deactivate Modern UI, delete Modules/ModernUi, install
Refresh as above. Its settings and shared views are taken over automatically.
Upgrading from Refresh 1.2 or older with push notifications in use: install Web Push along with Refresh 1.3. It takes over the app settings, the server keys and the subscribed devices: nobody has to subscribe again.
Manage › Settings › Refresh
| Setting | |
|---|---|
| First response | Hours to the first agent reply (default 24). Used by badges, views and the dashboard. Calendar hours, paused while a ticket is Pending. |
| Resolution | Hours to resolve a ticket (default 72). The due date of a ticket can also be changed by hand. |
| Logo | Image shown at the top of the left bar. Empty: the header logo (Customization module or FreeScout's own). |
Other modules can add an entry with their own icon to the left bar:
\Eventy::addFilter('refresh.rail_items', function ($items) {
$items[] = [
'url' => route('mymodule.page'),
'label' => __('My module'),
'icon' => asset(\Module::getPublicPath('mymodule').'/icons/mymodule.svg'), // SVG, drawn in the bar's color
'active' => \Route::is('mymodule.*'),
'order' => 500, // optional, default 100
];
return $items;
});Links a module adds to FreeScout's top menu also appear in the bar, with a generic icon, when they are not declared this way. The Cobrowse module is an example.
Modules built alongside Refresh. Each one also works with FreeScout's stock interface.
- Web Push: install FreeScout as an app on phones and desktops, with end-to-end encrypted Web Push notifications.
- Cobrowse: co-browse with your customers (Cobrowse.io) from the ticket sidebar, to guide them on your website or app.
- Freshdesk Import: import your Freshdesk tickets into FreeScout and keep them in sync until you switch over.
- Claude Assistant: draft and improve replies with Claude, from the reply editor.
Icons: Crayons (MIT), Tabler Icons (MIT) and Lucide (ISC, partly derived from Feather, MIT). Full notices in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md. No fonts are bundled.
Refresh is not affiliated with or endorsed by Freshworks. "Freshdesk" is a trademark of Freshworks Inc., used here only to describe the look the interface is inspired by.
GNU AGPL v3, like FreeScout.