Shared Mailboxes & Team Inbox

A shared mailbox is a team address such as support@, sales@ or info@ that your whole team answers together. Its emails arrive in one Inbox, grouped into conversations. Each customer email can become a numbered task with an owner, so nobody answers twice and nothing is forgotten. Replies go out from the team address, in the customer’s own thread, so the customer keeps writing to the team and never sees a personal address.

Website chats from a Web Agent that were passed to a person land in the same Inbox.

For your own personal mailbox, sequences and send limits, see Mailbox Integration.

Use cases

Situation	What the Team Inbox helps you do
A sales@ address that several people watch	Everyone sees every new enquiry in one list, so nothing waits in one person’s mailbox while they are away.
Making it clear who owns a reply	Every customer email gets a ticket number and an owner. Everyone can see who has it.
Answering from the company address	Replies leave from support@ in the same email thread, not from a personal address.
Knowing what still needs an answer	Unassigned shows what nobody has taken. Assigned to me shows your own list. Finished emails are marked done.
Giving a quick, consistent answer	Start a reply from a saved email template. Details such as the customer’s name are filled in from their record.
Website visitors who asked for a person	Their chat shows up in the Inbox next to your email, with the whole conversation.
The person who set it up leaves	The mailbox keeps working for the team. An admin gets a reminder to check who answers it.

Before you begin

Who can connect a shared address. Workspace admins and editors. Viewers cannot.
Who can work the Inbox. Admins and editors who are allowed to use the mailbox can read, assign and reply. Viewers who are allowed to use it can read the conversations and see who has them, but cannot reply, assign or mark them done.
A free mailbox spot. A shared address uses one mailbox spot of the person who connects it, the same as their own mailbox. Reconnecting an address that is already connected does not use another spot.
The address itself. For example support@yourcompany.com. What you need depends on where it lives:
- A Google account for that address: sign in to it when Google asks.
- A Google Group: your own Google account must be a member of the group and be able to send as the group’s address (see below).
- A Microsoft 365 shared mailbox: a Microsoft 365 administrator has to approve the connection once. Nobody signs in to a shared mailbox.
Email only. A shared address is used for email. Its calendar is never synced and it is not offered as a calendar.

Connect a shared address

Open Settings, then Mailbox.
Select Connect your email account. If you already have a mailbox, the button reads Connect another email account.
Choose Connect Gmail or Connect Outlook.
Under Whose mailbox is this?, choose A shared team address. This choice is only shown to admins and editors.
Type the address in Shared mailbox address.
Choose what to import, as you would for your own mailbox.
Select Connect and follow the steps for your provider below.

When it is done, the mailbox shows a Shared badge in Settings → Mailbox. A new shared address opens to Everyone in the workspace. You can narrow that afterwards (see Choose who can use the mailbox).

The last 90 days of email are sorted into conversations in the background, oldest first. Older emails are still stored and still show on your records, but they are not part of the Inbox.

A Google account for the address

A Google Group

A group inbox has no password, so you connect it through your own membership:

In Gmail, open Settings, then Accounts, then Send mail as, and add the group’s address. Finish Gmail’s confirmation step.
In the app, choose A shared team address, type the group’s address and select Connect Gmail.
Sign in with your own Google account.

Only emails that came through the group, and replies sent as the group, go into the shared mailbox. Your personal emails stay out. If your Gmail cannot send as the group yet, nothing is connected.

A Microsoft 365 shared mailbox

Choose Connect Outlook, A shared team address, type the shared mailbox’s address and select Connect.
Microsoft’s approval page opens in a new tab. A Microsoft 365 administrator needs to approve it. If that is not you, ask your administrator to do this step.

The approval is needed once for your organisation. The mailbox is not tied to anyone’s personal sign-in, so it keeps working if the person who set it up leaves. Groups and distribution lists are not shared mailboxes and cannot be connected this way.

Choose who can use the mailbox

Everyone who can use a shared mailbox can read what it brings in and send email from it. People who cannot use it never see its conversations or the mailbox itself.

Open Settings → Mailbox.
For a shared mailbox you connected yourself, select Mailbox settings on its card, then stay on the General tab.
In Who can use this, choose one:
- Only me: only you see the Inbox and can send from the address.
- Selected teammates: pick the people with Add teammates, for example only the sales team for sales@. Select the small cross on a name to remove someone. You always keep access yourself.
- Everyone in the workspace: the whole team uses the mailbox.

The app confirms with Updated who can use this. The Inbox tab appears or disappears for the people affected without reloading the page.

Only the person who connected the mailbox can change this on their own card. For a shared mailbox that someone else connected, any workspace admin sees the same Who can use this choice directly on the card, so the team can keep it running after the owner leaves. Editors and viewers cannot change it.

Turn an existing mailbox into a shared mailbox

If a team address is already connected as an ordinary mailbox, you do not need to connect it again. Only the person who connected it can do this, and only if they are an admin or editor.

Open Settings → Mailbox and select Mailbox settings on the mailbox.
On the General tab, turn on Shared mailbox.
Check Who can use this so the right people see it.

The last 90 days are then sorted into conversations in the background. Turning Shared mailbox off removes the Inbox for that address.

Open the Inbox

Select Email in the sidebar.
Select the Inbox tab. When you can use a shared mailbox, Email opens on the Inbox the first time you visit.
If you can use more than one mailbox, pick one in Team mailbox. Unread counts show next to each address.

The Inbox tab only exists for people who can use at least one shared mailbox.

Find the right conversation

Unassigned, Assigned to me and All show the conversations in each state. The numbers show how many are waiting (from 100 they show as 99+). Unassigned and Assigned to me only list emails that are not done.
Search conversations narrows the list as you type.
A conversation in bold has something you have not read. Unread is personal: opening a conversation marks it read for you, not for your teammates.
Each row shows who wrote last, the time, the subject, a short preview and who has it (a name, Unassigned or Done).
The list loads more as you scroll. Changes by teammates and new emails appear within about a second.

If an email was deleted from the mailbox, its place in the thread reads Email deleted from the mailbox so the conversation still makes sense.

Track who handles each email

The Unassigned, Assigned to me and All views, ticket numbers, owners and Mark as done are built on tasks. Until the tasks are set up, the Inbox shows every conversation in one list and you can read and reply, but nobody can take or finish an email.

The person who connected the mailbox sets this up once:

Open Email, then Inbox. At the top you see See who’s handling each customer email.
Select Set up.
Under Which group should these tasks go in?, choose A new group and name it in Group name, or pick an existing group that holds tasks. The suggested name is based on the address.
Leave Add everyone who can use this mailbox to the group ticked, so the whole team can see the tasks. Viewers join as viewers and everyone else as editors, so reading the mail never lets someone change tasks they should not.
Select Set up. The app confirms and offers Open group.

From now on every new customer conversation becomes one task, with a ticket number such as TICK-000042, named after the email subject and linked to the customer’s record. Replies in the same conversation never create a second task.

Only new emails get a task. For older ones, tick them in the Inbox and select Create tasks, or open the conversation and select Create task.
A person who can read the mailbox but is not in the task group sees You can read these emails, but you’re not in the group that holds their tasks. Ask a group admin to add them. A group admin also sees an Add them button whenever people can read the mailbox but are not in the group.
The task group appears below the mailbox name as Tasks are kept in:, with a link to open it.
A teammate who is not set up sees Ask the person who shared this mailbox to set it up.

If you would rather not hand out each email by hand, install the Share new tasks out automatically Autopilot for the group:

Open Autopilot, select Get inspired and search for the template.
Select Preview, then Install.
In step 1 choose the group that holds the tasks.
In step 2 pick the teammates and Who gets each task: Take turns, Random or Always the same person. Let them know when they get a task is on by default.
Select Install Autopilot.

Tasks that already have an owner are left alone. See Autopilot for more.

Assign a conversation

Open the conversation.
In Assigned to, pick a teammate (or yourself).

The conversation moves to that person’s Assigned to me view. Only people who can use the mailbox and can change the group’s tasks are offered. To hand it back to the team, select Unassign (the small icon next to the name).

If the conversation has no task yet, assigning it creates one. Viewers see who has it but cannot change it.

Reply to a customer

Open the conversation.
Select Reply to answer whoever wrote last, or Reply all to also copy the others on that email. The reply never goes to the mailbox’s own address.
Check To. Use CC or BCC to add more people.
Write your answer. You can attach files and pictures, and the mailbox’s signature is already in the box.
Select Send reply.

The window says Your reply is sent from followed by the team address. The reply leaves from that address, in the same email thread. A confirmation reads Reply sent. It shows up here in a moment., and the sent copy appears in the conversation once the mailbox syncs it back, usually within a few seconds.

To must not be empty. The app asks you to add at least one person, and checks every address.
If you close the window without sending, your draft stays until you open another conversation. Cancel closes it.
Signature. Only the person who connected the mailbox sees the option to edit the signature, from inside the reply window.
Send limits. Everyone sending from the mailbox shares its limits. By default that is 20 emails per hour and 50 per day, and the person who connected the mailbox can change them in Mailbox settings. If a limit is reached, the email waits until there is room.
Who can reply. Only admins and editors. A viewer sees You can read this conversation. To reply, ask a workspace admin to make you an editor.

Start from a template

In the reply window, open Use template and pick a saved email template (see Templates). It replaces the text, adds the template’s CC, BCC and attachments, and keeps the signature. Personal details are filled in from the customer’s record. Anything that cannot be filled in shows as a word in [brackets], with a warning that the person is not saved as a contact. Replace those before sending.

Design email opens a designer for a more styled layout.

Mark done and reopen

Select Mark as done when an email is handled. It leaves Unassigned and Assigned to me and shows as Done in All.
If the customer writes again, the task opens again by itself and whoever had it keeps it.
Your own replies do not reopen a done conversation.
Select Reopen to open it again yourself.
The small Open task icon next to these buttons opens the task itself.

Work on several conversations at once

Tick the boxes in the list. Only people who can change the group’s tasks see them.
Choose Assign to…, Mark as done, Reopen or Create tasks.
Select Clear to untick them all.

If some cannot be changed, the others are still updated and the app tells you how many it could not change.

Website chats in the Inbox

When a visitor asks a web agent for a person and leaves their details, the chat becomes a conversation in the Inbox. Each web agent has its own inbox, named after the agent, and it opens to the whole workspace.

You see the whole chat with names and times. Answers written by the agent are marked AI.
The visitor and their ticket are linked above the chat under Linked to. Select a name to open that record.
A badge shows Online now or Away. The reply box is plain text with a Send button, and it says it sends as the agent’s name.
If the visitor has left the website, your reply is also emailed to them.

Hand-off, who answers and how the agent works are described in Web Agent.

Show emails on records is a separate choice on a mailbox you connected. It lets your team see your emails with a customer on that customer’s record, without letting them open the rest of the mailbox or send from it. It does not give anyone access to the Inbox.

When the person who set it up leaves

A shared mailbox keeps receiving and sending for the team. Admins get a Needs attention reminder to check who answers it. An admin can then pick the people in Who can use this, and an admin or editor can reconnect it if it breaks.

Reconnect a shared mailbox

If sign-in expires, the card shows an Error status and a Reconnect button. Admins and editors can use it, not only the person who first connected it.

Open Settings → Mailbox and find the shared mailbox.
Select Reconnect.
Sign in again, as you did when connecting: with the address’s own Google account, with your own account as a member of the Google Group, or through a Microsoft 365 administrator’s approval.

It stays the same mailbox: conversations, tasks and Who can use this are kept, and it does not use another mailbox spot. Emails that arrived while it was disconnected, up to 30 days, are brought in without duplicates. A different account can take over a mailbox this way, as long as that address is not already connected here.

Only the person who connected a mailbox sees Disconnect.

Limits and defaults

Item	Value
New shared mailbox access	Everyone in the workspace
History put into the Inbox when shared	Last 90 days
Task created for	New emails only. Older ones through Create tasks
List page size	50 conversations, more as you scroll
Counts	Shown up to 99, then 99+
Default send limit	20 per hour, 50 per day, shared by everyone sending
Catch-up after a disconnect	Up to 30 days
Calendar	Never synced for a shared address

Troubleshooting

The Inbox tab is missing

The tab appears only when you can use a shared mailbox. In Settings → Mailbox check that the mailbox shows the Shared badge, then ask the person who connected it (or an admin) to add you in Who can use this. A personal mailbox opened to you lets you send from it, but it has no Inbox. If you have no mailbox at all, the Inbox says No team inboxes yet.

I only see an “All” list, no Unassigned or Assigned to me

Tasks are not set up for this mailbox yet. The person who connected it needs to select Set up at the top of the Inbox. Others see Ask the person who shared this mailbox to set it up.

I can read the emails but cannot assign or finish them

Either you are a workspace viewer, or you are not in the group that holds the tasks. Ask an admin to make you an editor, or a group admin to add you.

“This address is already connected as a shared mailbox in your workspace”

Each team address can be connected once per workspace. Ask for access to the existing one, or reconnect it if it shows an error.

“This account is already connected in your workspace”

The same account is already connected as an ordinary mailbox. Turn on Shared mailbox on that mailbox instead, or reconnect with a different account.

“Your Google account can’t send as that address yet”

Your Gmail is not set up to send as the Google Group. Add the address under Settings → Accounts → Send mail as, finish Google’s confirmation, and connect again.

“We couldn’t reach that mailbox”

For a Microsoft 365 shared mailbox, check the spelling of the address and that your administrator approved the connection. Then try again.

“That address isn’t a Microsoft 365 shared mailbox”

Groups and distribution lists cannot be connected as shared mailboxes. Use the real shared mailbox, or connect a Google Group through Gmail.

“isn’t allowed to read that mailbox yet”

The administrator’s approval has not reached that mailbox. Ask them to approve, wait a few minutes and try again.

Older emails are not in the Inbox

Only the last 90 days are sorted into conversations when an address becomes shared. Older emails stay on your records.

My reply does not show in the conversation yet

A reply appears once the mailbox brings the sent copy back, usually within a few seconds. If it has not appeared after a minute, check that the mailbox shows Connected in Settings → Mailbox. If it shows Error, select Reconnect.

The customer wrote again but the email did not reopen

Reopening is part of the task setup. Check the Inbox shows Tasks are kept in: and that the email had a task. Older emails get one when someone takes, finishes or creates a task for them.

I cannot change who can use the mailbox or its signature

Who can use it can be changed by the person who connected the mailbox, and for a shared mailbox also by any workspace admin. The signature and the Shared mailbox switch are only for the person who connected it. If they have left, an admin can reconnect it and choose who answers.

Two people answered the same customer

Check Assigned to before you write. Assign emails first, or use the Autopilot to share them out, so everyone sees the owner within a second.

Privacy and safety

Share a mailbox only with the people who answer that address. Everyone you add can read everything the mailbox brings in and send from it. Workspace admins get no extra access to someone’s personal mailbox, only to shared team addresses. Use Selected teammates when an address carries sensitive customer, HR or finance email, and review replies as carefully as any customer message, because they go out in the company’s name.