Conversational text
Guide for conversation or thread-based text data.
When you attach a conversational text data row to a project, Labelbox will automatically adjust the editor interface to render the conversational or thread-based text.

Conversational UI is used for annotating text in the context of a conversation.

Thread-based UI is used for annotating text in the context of a multi-user thread.
Import conversational text
To learn how to import conversational text data, visit our documentation on importing conversational text.
Data row size limit
To view the maximum size allowed for a data row, visit our limits page.
Supported annotation types
Below are all of the annotation types you may include in your ontology when you are labeling conversational or thread data. Classification-type annotations can be applied globally and/or nested within an object-type annotation.
Import annotations | Export annotations | |
---|---|---|
Entity | See payload | See payload |
Radio classification (Global or message-based) | See payload | See payload |
Checklist classification (Global) | See payload | See payload |
Free-form text classification (Global) | See payload | See payload |
Entity
To create an entity, simply choose the entity tool in your ontology and select the text string by clicking the desired starting character and dragging to select a sequence of characters in the unstructured text.

Note that the labeler cannot annotate the text with a grey background.
Please note that in both the conversational and thread-based UI, the annotator will only be able to label messages that have been marked as canLabel
in the import file. The messages that can be annotated will have a white background while those that cannot be annotated will have a grey background.
Message-based radio classifications
One unique feature of our conversation editor is the ability to label specific messages in a conversation with a radio classification value. This enables you to annotate messages with values such as intent or user sentiment.

In order to configure your radio classification as a message-based classification, you must configure your radio classification task as a Frame/pixel-based classification value during ontology configuration. If this value is not configured correctly, the radio classification will apply to the entire conversation rather than a single message.

Relationship
With the annotation relationships feature, you can create and define relationships between entity annotations in unstructured text. You can then use these annotation relationships to consolidate labeling workflows and potentially reduce the number of language models needed.
Create an annotation relationship with the following steps:
- Create two entity annotations.
- Use
Option
+ Click to create a relationship between the entity annotations. - Define the relationship, selecting from the existing tools in your ontology.
Relationships can be undefined
If desired, a relationship between two annotations can be defined with without a value. This denotes a direct relationship between the annotations without any extra modifiers.
Text-specific hotkeys
Function | Hotkey | Description |
---|---|---|
Create a relationship | Option + Click (source) + Click (target) | Select an entity to be the source of a relationship, then connect it to another entity to be the target. |
Updated about 1 month ago