Inbox & keyboard shortcuts

The shared inbox is where your whole team answers visitors in real time. This guide covers folders, assignment, notes, saved replies, snoozing and bulk actions, and ends with every keyboard shortcut.

Inbox layout

The inbox has four columns: folders, the conversation list, the open conversation, and the details sidebar about the contact. New messages appear instantly, without refreshing.

Above the list, switch between Open, Snoozed and Closed, and sort by Newest, Oldest, Waiting longest or Priority first. A timer on each open conversation shows how long the visitor has been waiting for a reply.

Assignment and teams

• Assign a conversation to a teammate, or to yourself with A, and to a team from the conversation header.
• Replying takes ownership. When you reply to an unassigned conversation, it's assigned to you, so two people don't answer the same visitor.
• Automatic assignment (round robin or balanced, with an optional cap per teammate) and routing rules can assign new conversations for you. See Settings → Assignment and Automation → Rules.

Internal notes and @mentions

Switch the composer from Reply to Note (or press N) to write something only your team can see. Notes are never shown to the visitor or included in transcripts. Type @ in a note to mention a teammate. They get an in-app notification and a push notification, and an email if they haven't seen it after about a minute (each depending on their notification settings). The conversation also shows up in their Mentions folder.

Saved replies

Type / at the start of a line in the composer to open your saved replies. Keep typing to filter by shortcut, for example /thanks, then press Enter or Tab to insert. You can also click the saved-replies button. Admins create shared replies for the whole team in Settings → Saved replies, and everyone can keep personal ones. New workspaces start with four: /hello, /thanks, /email and /wait.

Saved replies can include these variables, which are filled in when you insert the reply:

The composer can also insert a help article as a card (see Help center), as well as emoji and file attachments. Unsent drafts are kept per conversation in your browser.

Tags, priority, snooze and close

• Tags label conversations (for example Sales, Bug or Billing). Use them to filter the inbox and in Reports. Admins manage the tag list in Settings → Tags.
• Priority (P) flags urgent conversations. Sort by Priority first to keep them on top.
• Snooze (S) hides a conversation until 1 hour, 4 hours, tomorrow at 9:00, next Monday at 9:00, one week, or a time you pick. It comes back to Open at that time and the assignee is notified. If the visitor writes earlier, it reopens right away.
• Close (X) when you're done. If your team replied and ratings are on, the visitor is asked to rate the conversation. A new visitor message reopens it automatically. The send button's menu also offers Send and close and Send and snooze until tomorrow.

Bulk actions and search

Click the select button above the list, or hold ⌘/Ctrl and click conversations, to select several. You can then close, reopen, assign, snooze, mark as read, tag or (admins only) delete up to 200 at once. Press Esc to clear the selection.

Search (F) finds conversations by contact name, email, phone or user ID, by words in messages, or by conversation number (such as #128). Search covers every folder and status.

Live context: sneak peek, collisions and the sidebar

• Sneak peek: see what a visitor is typing before they hit send, so you can start preparing an answer. It's on by default, and admins can turn it off in the workspace settings.
• Collision detection: if a teammate is typing in the same conversation, you'll see “Name is typing a reply…” or “…writing a note…” above the composer.
• Details sidebar: contact details and local time, location, browser, device and language, the current page and recent pages, sessions and page views, custom attributes (editable), contact notes, contact tags, tracked events, and the contact's other conversations. You'll also find conversation facts such as how it started, the channel and the first reply time.
• Block a visitor from the conversation's More menu (optionally including their IP address). Copy a link to the conversation, email a transcript and open the full contact profile from the same menu.

Keyboard shortcuts

Press ? in the inbox, or choose Keyboard shortcuts in your account menu, to see this list at any time. Single-key shortcuts don't fire while you're typing in a field.

Related: Office hours & away mode for your online status, and Email replies for how teammates are emailed about unanswered messages.