What is the inbox?
The inbox is where every customer conversation arrives, whichever way the customer reached you — live chat from the website widget, email, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and phone calls answered by an AI voice agent. You find it in the left menu under Communications → Inbox.
The four inbox views
Under Inbox in the left menu there are four rows. Each one shows a different slice of the same conversation list.
| View | What it shows |
|---|---|
| My inbox | Conversations assigned to you, plus conversations nobody has replied to yet. This is your working queue — start here each day. |
| All | Every conversation you have access to, assigned or not. Useful for team leads who need the full picture. |
| Unassigned | Conversations still waiting for their first agent reply. Check this to pick up new conversations quickly. |
| Calls | Phone conversations answered by an AI voice agent, with the spoken exchange written out as messages. This row only appears if you hold the Voice & calls permission. |
Looking for the list of people browsing your site right now? That is no longer a tab inside the inbox — it has its own place in the left menu at Audience → Visitors.
The conversation list
The conversation list fills the left panel. Each row shows the visitor's name — or, when there is no name, the first part of their email address, or their phone number on a call — a preview of the last message, a channel icon on the left and a timestamp. Conversations still waiting for a reply are shown in bold with a coloured timestamp. The small dot on the channel icon is the visitor's presence: green while they are on your site right now, grey when they are not. It is not an unread marker.
Click any row to open the conversation in the message pane.
The message pane
The message pane is the central area where you read and reply. It contains:
- The message thread — every message between the visitor and your team, oldest first. Private notes sit in the same thread on a different background and are never shown to the visitor.
- The input bar — where you type. Along its action bar sit the + button for attachments, AI Tools, Insert (templates, help articles, documentation pages), Start (forms and workflows), Auto Translate, and the Public/Private switch. Replies are sent as plain text — there is no bold, italic or list formatting.
- The conversation header — the Transfer button and an ellipsis (⋯) menu for leaving or closing the conversation and searching its history.
The sidebar
The sidebar sits to the right of the message pane and tells you who you are talking to:
- The visitor's profile at the top, split into Identity (name, email, external ID) and Context (plan, country, last seen, who the conversation is assigned to).
- Device details — which chat widget the conversation came from, the visitor's IP, location and device.
- Actions — Send email, Related email chats (only when the visitor has an email address on file), Ask for rating (not offered on phone calls), Send transcript, Ban visitor, and Delete visitor data (organisation owners only).
- Recent events — a timeline of what the visitor did on your site before and during the conversation.
Filters and search
The search box at the top of the conversation list needs at least three characters and updates as you type. The small icon on its right chooses what you are searching: Search by message, Search by visitor or Search by agent.
Next to it is the Filters button. It opens one panel with two groups: Channels (Web widget, Facebook, Instagram, Phone calls) and Widgets. A small number on the button tells you how many filters are switched on, and Clear removes them all.
The two groups combine: pick a channel to see only that kind of conversation, pick a widget to see only conversations that arrived through it, or pick both.
Which conversations reach you
What you see in the inbox is decided per brand. An admin grants each teammate a set of brands, and you see the conversations belonging to those brands and nothing else. Owners and admins always see every brand.
If conversations you expect are missing, ask an owner or an admin to grant you the brand. Why can't I see a conversation? explains where they do that and what else can hide a conversation.
What's next
Now that you know your way around, see how to reply to a conversation and start answering customers.