> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://www.plain.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Heatmaps

> How Plain's heatmaps aggregate thread and message counts by hour and day of week.

Heatmaps show when threads arrive and when agents respond, broken down by hour of day (UTC) and day of week. Use them to spot coverage gaps and plan staffing.

## Available heatmaps

| Heatmap         | What it shows                            | Where              |
| --------------- | ---------------------------------------- | ------------------ |
| Threads created | New inbound threads by day and hour.     | Main Insights view |
| Messages sent   | Outbound agent messages by day and hour. | Team pages only    |

## How each cell is calculated

Each cell shows the count for that hour-of-day and day-of-week combination, summed across every week in the selected period. A 4-week period means each cell aggregates up to 4 days' worth of data. Hour buckets run 0-23 UTC.

Thread counts exclude threads from deleted or spam customers and threads created by Plain users. Message counts cover outbound agent messages only; auto-replies and AI-generated messages are not included.

## How to read it

Darker cells mean more activity. Hover over any cell to see the exact count.

## How to use it

Set the period to at least 4 weeks to get a reliable pattern. Comparing the Threads created heatmap against Messages sent (from a team member's page) shows when threads are arriving but no agent is responding.