Last updated: 2021-06-25

Source: https://support.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/225153-is-there-a-way-to-prevent-automatic-ticket-assignment-when-an-agent-replies-to-an-unassigned-ticket-

The automatic ticket assignment would be caused by the action of the automation rule that runs on ticket updates - 'Automatically assign the ticket to the first responder'.

You could disable this rule if you'd like to have the ticket assigned before being responded to. Go to Admin > Workflows > Automations > Ticket Updates toggle this off.