Inbox and conversations

The Inbox is where your team reads and answers customers from every connected channel. This page covers the screen, how conversations move through their lifecycle, who owns them, and the tools in the reply box. For AI behavior inside a conversation, see AI control and takeover.

Open the inbox#

Choose Conversations, then Inbox in the sidebar. You need permission to read conversations, and the workspace needs the Inbox plan or higher (see Plans and billing). Press Ctrl+K (Cmd+K on Mac) at any time to search from anywhere in the dashboard.

The layout#

On a desktop the inbox has three columns.

On a phone-sized browser the inbox shows one pane at a time and offers Back to queue.

The Context panel has four tabs.

• Account: the contact's fields (editable inline), company, tags, a customer summary card, ad referral details for Meta click-to-message ads, and browser and device details for web chat.
• Work: work items, tasks, appointments and forms linked to this conversation. See Tasks, work items and approvals.
• Files: attachments shared in the conversation.
• Activity: a timeline of changes such as handling, assignment, status and tag updates.

The thread opens independently of related work records. Opening Account or Work loads the related summary, tasks and appointments; a loading state appears while those records arrive. Incoming messages and reply permissions continue to update while the Context panel is closed.

Views and filters#

The left column lists the built-in views:

Below these you will find contact lifecycle stages (by default Lead, Active customer, Inactive, Lost; editable in Settings, Inbox settings, Lifecycle), conversation status filters, one entry per team, and your custom inboxes. Sections can be collapsed and reordered, and each entry has a toggle to make it the view the inbox opens on.

The queue toolbar adds a search box, a filter menu (handling mode, channel, unanswered only, awaiting approval only, and an advanced filter builder) and two personal switches:

• Silent mode: opening a conversation does not mark it read for your teammates.
• Smart assignment: your first reply does not claim an unowned conversation. Further text replies claim it according to the reply count and time window configured in Settings, Inbox settings, Conversations.

Saved views (custom inboxes)#

Use the + button in the views column to save the current filters as a custom inbox.

1. Set up the filters you want in the queue.
2. Choose + and name the view.
3. Pick who can see it: only you, up to 50 named teammates, or the whole workspace. Workspace-wide views need permission to manage settings, and can be published or unpublished.
4. Use the view's menu to Rename, publish or Archive it.

If a saved condition is not supported by the inbox yet, a banner tells you so.

Statuses and how a conversation moves#

Every conversation has two separate states.

Status (lifecycle)#

Not every jump is allowed. A closed conversation can only be reopened. A new one can go to open, blocked or closed. To close, enter a reason when your workspace requires one and can choose a close category defined in Settings, Inbox settings, Conversations. To snooze, choose one hour, tomorrow, one week or a custom date, up to 366 days ahead. Closing needs the permission to close conversations. Other changes need the permission to assign.

If someone else changed the conversation while you were looking, you see "This conversation changed since it was loaded". Reload and retry.

Waiting on customer, snoozed and blocked pause the SLA clock.

Handling#

Handling says who is dealing with the conversation: the AI, a human, or nobody yet. It is covered in AI control and takeover. Closing a conversation sets handling to resolved. Reopening it returns it to the assigned person, or to the AI if the workspace has AI and nobody owns it.

Assign a conversation#

Use the Status & owner control in the thread header. It has three outcomes:

1. Pick an operator to assign it to them. They become the human owner.
2. Pick nobody to clear the owner. The conversation goes back to waiting for a human.
3. Choose Auto-assign off so that replying does not claim the conversation and several agents can answer.

You can also route to a team. Priority (low, normal, high, urgent) is set from the same header.

Claiming by replying#

Sending a reply in an unowned conversation claims it for you. If someone else owns it:

• Managers and admins can always reply.
• If the owner is offline and the conversation has been idle at least 15 minutes, anyone can take over.
• Within the same team you see a banner, "X is handling this conversation. Sending will take it over, and they'll be notified", with a Take over button.
• From another team you must Request access. An administrator approves it, and the approval lasts a limited time window ("Access approved, N min left to take this over").

Each operator has a Max chats value (1 to 99) set on the Team page, which drives the Busy status.

Bulk actions#

Select up to 50 conversations to assign, clear the assignee, route to a team, set priority, pause or hand to the assistant, or close them in one step.

Reply to a customer#

The reply box has two modes: Customer reply and Internal note.

Internal notes and mentions#

A note is visible to your team only. You can also choose Discuss this message internally on any message to open a private thread, which can be resolved and reopened. Mention a teammate with @. A mention can be an action request: the teammate must confirm they read it before they can reply to the customer.

Shortcuts (canned responses)#

Type # and pick a saved reply. Manage them in Settings, Inbox settings, Shortcuts.

• Personal shortcuts are yours. Workspace shortcuts are shared, and creating them needs a manager or admin.
• A shortcut name uses lowercase letters, digits, dots, dashes and underscores, up to 32 characters. Title up to 80 characters, body up to 4,000. Up to 200 shortcuts per scope.
• If a personal shortcut has the same name as a workspace one, yours wins.

Copilot#

With AI Assist, the Copilot panel can Suggest a reply. You can Regenerate, Use, Copy or Dismiss it. Nothing is sent until you send it.

Scheduled messages#

Choose Send later in the reply box: in 15 minutes, 30 minutes, one hour, or a date and time you pick. A scheduled message must be at least 30 seconds and at most 30 days ahead, and a conversation can hold 50 pending ones. You can cancel before it sends. If sending fails you see "Scheduled message wasn't sent" and can dismiss it.

Hold a reply for review#

Press Cmd/Ctrl+Enter to put a reply on hold instead of sending it. You can name up to 20 approvers, who need permission to decide approvals and cannot approve their own message. Managers and admins can always decide. Held replies appear under Needs review. Rejected ones return to the author.

Drafts#

Text you type is saved as a draft per conversation on the server for 30 days, so you can continue on another device.

Attachments#

Attach up to 10 files and 100 MB in total per send. Accepted types and sizes depend on the channel. If the channel cannot deliver a file you see a message such as "This channel can't deliver that". You can also record a voice note in the reply box.

Work with messages#

Search#

Use the search box in the queue toolbar (messages need at least two characters) or press Ctrl+K / Cmd+K for global search. After two characters the palette shows Workspace results for contacts, companies, work items, messages, activity and comments. Each kind only appears if you have permission to read it.

Limits at a glance#

See also Notifications, SLA and escalations and Team, roles and permissions.