Universal Inbox

Inbox brings your customer conversations into one list: email, SMS, WhatsApp, website chat, Messenger, Instagram, Meta Ads, and calls. This guide shows you how to find conversations, sort them, and share the work with your team.

Before you begin

• Connect at least one channel. Inbox only shows channels you've connected. See Inbox channels.
• Plan: on the Free plan, Inbox is an Email inbox for reading and replying to email. Free replies include a "Powered by Spacebrain" footer. Other channels need a paid plan.
• Role: you need edit access to reply, assign, or change a conversation's status. Viewers can read.

Where to find it

Open Inbox in the main sidebar. The Inbox sidebar lists:

• All channels, then one entry per channel: Email, SMS, WhatsApp, Chat, Messenger, Instagram, Meta Ads, and Call. Choosing a channel filters the list; it doesn't turn other channels off.
• Email accounts, which opens email account setup.

Find the right conversations

Across the top of the list you'll see queue buttons:

You can narrow further with:

• Search conversations – type a name or words to look for. Select Clear search to reset.
• Filter by status – Open, Snoozed, Archived, or Closed.
• Filter by priority – Urgent, High, Normal, or Low.
• Filter by label – for example "VIP" or "Billing".
• All assignees – pick a teammate to see only their conversations.

Save a view

If you use the same filters often, open Saved views and select Save current view. Give it a View name, such as "My urgent SMS". Later, pick it from Saved views to apply it in one click. Use Update saved view or Delete saved view to change it.

Understand a conversation

Select a conversation to open it on the right (or full screen on a phone). You'll see:

• Every message, note, and call in time order, with a label such as Email Received, SMS Sent, Inbound Call, or Note.
• The contact's details, Tags, lead Score, and a suggested Next best action. Select View Lead Details to open the CRM record.
• Status, assignee, priority, labels, and snooze controls at the top.
• A Needs reply badge when the customer is waiting on you.
• A note such as "Sam is viewing" or "Sam is replying — coordinate before sending." when a teammate has the same conversation open.

See Conversations, replies, and handoffs for replying, notes, AI help, and handoffs.

Share the work with assignment

You can assign a conversation to a teammate so everyone knows who owns it.

1. Open the conversation.
2. In the Assignee menu, choose Assign to… and pick a teammate, or choose Unassigned to clear it.
3. The conversation now appears in that person's Mine queue.

Assignment shows who owns the conversation. If the follow-up happens outside Inbox, such as sending a quote, also create a task with a due date.

Act on several conversations at once

Tick conversations in the list to show the bulk toolbar. You can:

• Archive, Close, mark as Read or Unread.
• Add label.
• Snooze until Later today, Tomorrow, or Next week.
• Set Priority to Low, Normal, High, or Urgent.

A message confirms how many conversations were updated. Select Undo straight away if you made a mistake. Select Clear selection when you're done.

Unmatched senders and the Outbox

• If someone contacts you who isn't in your CRM, an amber Unmatched button with a count appears at the top of Inbox. Select it to match them to a lead. See Unmatched senders and Outbox.
• Outbox lists messages and calls your workspace sent, with a delivery status. Use it to check whether something went out before sending again. It has no menu link yet; see Use the read-only Outbox for how to open it.

Try the sample inbox

Not connected yet? When your Inbox is empty, select Try sample inbox to load safe example conversations. Select Remove sample when you're done exploring.

Start each day

1. Check you're in the right workspace, and clear any old filters.
2. Open Needs reply and Mine, then Unassigned to pick up new work.
3. If a channel is unusually quiet, check its connection.
4. Reply, add internal notes, and update the status as you go.
5. Assign anything you can't finish, or create a task with a due date.

If something goes wrong

FAQ

Does filtering by channel disconnect other channels?

No. Channel filters only change what you see.

How do I know if a teammate is already replying?

When someone else is typing in the same conversation, a notice says they're replying and asks you to coordinate before sending.

Why does a conversation say "Imported history is read-only"?

It was imported from another system. You can read it but not reply in that conversation.

Next step

Connect your channels: Inbox channels.