Inbox

Inbox is the shared workspace for customer conversations. It brings email, website and app chat, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Telegram, and phone calls into queues that sales, support, and success teams work together.

For internal team conversations, use Chat instead.

Inboxes, channels, and conversations

An inbox is a queue with members and assignment rules. A channel is a connected customer endpoint, such as a WhatsApp number or a Gmail address, that delivers messages into an inbox. A conversation is one customer thread.

Conversations hold status, priority, assignee, inbox, tags, participants, messages, internal notes, and links to CRM records.

Work the queue

Open Inbox from the Operations section.
Pick All Inboxes or one inbox from the switcher.
Choose a view, then open a conversation.
Assign it, reply to the customer, or add an internal note.
Add tags and link the right Contact, Deal, Account, or Ticket.
Close the conversation, or snooze it until it needs attention again.

Views

View	Shows
Assigned to me	Conversations you own
Mentions	Conversations where a teammate @mentioned you in a note
Unassigned	Conversations waiting for an owner
AI handoffs	Conversations an AI agent passed to a person
All	Everything you can see
Email, Chat, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, Telegram, Calls	One channel type (shown only when that channel is connected)
All closed, Sent, Spam, Trash	Closed conversations, conversations waiting on the customer, and filtered mail

Search with Search conversations, and sort by Date started, Last activity, Waiting since, Next SLA, Priority, or Snoozed until. Your sort choice is remembered.

The list header can also start a New WhatsApp conversation from an approved template, open Test an agent, and Sync emails now when an email channel is connected.

Reply, note, or instruct the AI

The composer has three modes:

Mode	Who sees it
Reply	The customer, on their channel
Note	Teammates only. Type `@` to mention someone; mentioned teammates are added to the conversation and see it under Mentions.
Instruct AI	Only the AI agent working the conversation. See AI in the inbox.

Replies support attachments, emoji, voice messages, and macros (Use macro). Email replies have Cc Bcc. On WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram you can hover a message and select Reply to quote it, or React with an emoji. When the WhatsApp 24-hour service window has closed, the text box is disabled and you send an approved message with Send Template instead.

Refine rewrites your draft — Make shorter, Make friendlier, Make more formal, or Translate to another language — when the AI assistant is included in your plan. Press ⌘/Ctrl+Enter to send.

Messages show delivery state (Sending, Sent, Delivered, Seen, Failed). Customer edits show an (edited) marker, and customer reactions appear as chips on the message. On website and app chat you can delete a message you sent; the visitor sees that it was deleted.

Status, assignment, and snooze

A conversation is Open, Pending, Snoozed, Resolved, or Closed. Use Close and Reopen in the header, or the Status field in Details for Pending and Resolved. A customer reply reopens a snoozed, resolved, or closed conversation.

Snooze presets are Later today, Tomorrow, Monday, One week, One month, and Custom. You can also type a duration such as 1 hour or 2 days.

Assign a conversation from Details: Assign to You, a teammate, or Unassigned. Only inbox members who have Inbox in their plan can be assigned.

Configure inboxes

Open Settings → Inbox → Inboxes and select an inbox. Its page has three tabs.

Access — who works the inbox: Available to everyone, Select departments, or Select users.

Assignment — how new conversations get an owner:

Nobody — the team picks it up from the queue
Always this person
Round robin — take turns across whoever is available
Least busy — whoever has the fewest open conversations

You can also assign to the teammate who replies first, cap Maximum open conversations per person, limit assignment to business hours, and choose what happens When nobody is available (Leave it in the queue or Assign it anyway). A separate block controls When the AI hands over to a human: route like a new conversation, to someone specific, or to a department, optionally raising priority and sending repeat handoffs back to the same person.

Settings — Auto Close (days), customer Conversation ratings (CSAT) with reasons for a bad rating, and filters that automatically mark email as spam.

Connect channels

Open Settings → Inbox → Channels and select Connect a channel.

Channel	Setup
Team email	Connect a Gmail or Microsoft Outlook mailbox
Messenger	The chat widget for your website and mobile apps
WhatsApp	Connect a WhatsApp Business number
Facebook Messenger	Connect a Facebook Page for private messages and public comments
Instagram	Connect an Instagram Business or Creator account for DMs and comments
Telegram	Connect a bot token
Phone Calls	Connect or buy a phone number — see Calls

From the channel list you can move a channel to another inbox, or disconnect it. WhatsApp channels also have Manage templates for message templates and Manage Flows for interactive WhatsApp Flows forms. The website chat widget has its own settings for appearance, mobile SDKs, outbound messages, installation, and security.

Connect WhatsApp

WhatsApp offers two ways to connect:

Keep using the WhatsApp Business app — the phone app and Workstation share the number. Messages you send from the phone also appear in Workstation. The number must be on a recent app version and active for at least 7 days.
Move the number to the Cloud API — Workstation takes over the number completely.

Connect Telegram

Telegram uses a bot created through the verified @BotFather account:

Send /newbot to BotFather.
Enter a display name and a unique username ending in bot.
Copy the complete API token.
In Workstation, select Settings → Inbox → Channels → Connect a channel → Telegram.
Paste the token, choose the inbox, and connect the channel.
Open the bot in Telegram and send /start to test it.

Treat the token like a password. If it is exposed, use BotFather’s /revoke command and reconnect with the replacement token.

A Telegram bot cannot start a private conversation. The customer must message the bot first. Telegram does not use WhatsApp templates or the WhatsApp service window.

Public comments on your Facebook and Instagram posts and ads arrive through the connected Facebook Messenger and Instagram channels. The conversation shows the post, an Ad badge when it came from an ad, and the comment threads.

For each comment you can Reply publicly, Reply privately with a direct message (valid for 7 days after the comment), or Hide, Unhide, or Delete it.

Inbox Rules

Rules handle common messages and comments automatically. Create them in Settings → Inbox → Rules, from scratch or from a template:

Comment keyword → auto-DM the link
Reply menu (1 / 2 / 3 / 4)
Opt-out on STOP / إيقاف
Hide comments with banned words

A rule starts when A new message is received or A new comment is received, on the channels you pick. Conditions include Contains keywords (match any or all), Is exactly, Contains a link, Contains only emojis, and Contains only mentions.

Actions:

Send a reply — for comments, sent as a private DM to the commenter
Hide / delete comment
Add an inbox tag
Opt the contact out — on this channel only, or on all channels
Reply menu — numbered options, each with its own reply or opt-out, plus a fallback reply

Turn each rule on or off with its switch. Rules run on the Workflows engine; select Open in workflow builder to edit one. Keep conditions narrow so a broad auto-reply or moderation action doesn’t catch legitimate messages.

Macros

Macros are saved replies with optional one-click actions. A macro can include attachments, Set status, Add tag, and Assign or unassign.

Each macro has Available for (Everyone or A specific inbox) and Available when (Replying or Adding notes). Organize macros in folders, duplicate useful ones, and Export the library as JSON. Configure them in Settings → Inbox → Macros; owners and admins can create and edit macros.

Tickets share the same macro library (also reachable from Settings → Tickets → Macros). On a ticket, a macro inserts only its text — its actions and attachments apply in the inbox only.

Customer context and tickets

Every person who writes in gets a Contact automatically. Workstation matches an existing Contact by email, then phone, and creates one when there is no match. Anonymous website visitors become Contacts once they share a name, email, or phone. The contact record’s Conversations tab lists that person’s conversations.

Open Details to see and change the conversation:

Assignee, Priority, Status, and the AI agent’s state
SLA timers such as First reply due
Links to a Ticket, Deal, or Account
the Contact, with Contact notes, Recent conversations, and Recent orders (Create order)
Tags, Conversation attributes, and Suggested CRM updates the AI noticed in the conversation
From ad or From post when the customer came from an ad

You can drag Details sections into the order you prefer. When a Contact with a pipeline is linked, the header shows a stage picker (Set contact stage).

To open a formal service record, select Links → Ticket → Create ticket. Turn on Include conversation thread to copy the messages into the new Ticket.

AI in the inbox

An AI agent can be deployed to an inbox to suggest replies or answer customers on its own.

When the agent is answering, a banner says so. Select Take over to pause it and reply yourself, then Resume AI to hand back.
In suggest mode, an AI suggested reply card appears above the composer. Select Use to insert it.
Instruct AI sends the agent a private instruction, such as “offer the 10% discount”. Use Send & resume AI to resume it in the same step.
When the agent hands a conversation to a person, it appears under AI handoffs with an AI brief in Details explaining why and suggesting the next step.
Rate any AI message with Good reply or Bad reply, and give a reason for bad ones. Ratings feed the agent’s Feedback view.
More actions → Improve the AI agent analyzes what went wrong in this conversation and proposes knowledge or playbook changes you can apply.
More actions → Show AI costs shows what the conversation’s AI work cost from your AI balance.

Visibility and permissions

You see a conversation when you are its assignee or owner, a participant (including by @mention), or a member of its inbox, within your workspace visibility rules.

Permission group	Actions
`inbox_conversations`	view, create, update, assign, close
`inbox_messages`	view, reply, note
`inboxes`	view, create, update, delete
`inbox_channel_accounts`	view, create, update, delete
`inbox_rules`	view, create, update, delete

Inbox requires the Inbox & Calls add-on. See Plans & Add-ons.