Inbox, Chat & Views

What you'll learn

Common Use Cases

Once you know your way around the inbox, here's what you can start doing right away.

✋

Start A Conversation Fast

Message a contact or a teammate in a couple of clicks, without waiting for them to message you first.

⭐

Never Lose A Message

Star a conversation you need to come back to, so an important reply never slips through the cracks.

💬

Keep Team Talk Private

Use internal chat to coordinate with teammates about a contact without that conversation ever reaching them.

🔍

Build Your Own Views

Save a filter combination, like every conversation tagged "active," so it's one click away every time you log in.

Key definitions

Terms worth knowing

The button that starts a conversation from scratch, either by messaging a contact directly or by messaging a teammate.

A conversation with more than one contact at once. It's available when your connected phone number is set as your SMS provider.

Your personal view of conversations, focused on what's assigned to you, what you follow, and where you're mentioned.

A wider view of conversations across your account, useful when you need visibility beyond just your own messages.

A private chat thread between you and your teammates, completely separate from any contact-facing conversation.

A saved filter combination you can reuse any time, so you can jump straight to the conversations that matter most to you.

"The sooner you respond, the better things go. Always keep up with your messages, and if you're not sure what to do with one, star it. You can always follow up later."

How it works

Starting Conversations, Working Your Inbox, And Saving Views

Message a contact or a teammate

Click New Conversation to start fresh. Choose Message Contact to select a specific contact and pick how you'll reach them, by text or email, whatever you have on file. If your connected phone number is set as your SMS provider, you can also turn on group chat to message more than one contact at once in the same thread. Choose Message Teammate instead to start a private internal chat with one or more people on your team.

All, unread, recent, and starred

Your inbox sorts into All, Unread, Recent, and Starred, plus Assigned To Me and Followed By Me. Assigned To Me pulls in conversations for contacts where you're set as the owner. Followed By Me pulls in conversations for contacts you follow, even if you're not the owner. Both of those are set right on the contact record. A good daily habit: check Unread first so nothing sits too long, then All to catch anything from a campaign or automation, then Recent, then Starred to follow up on anything you saved for later.

Filter and sort to find what you need

The filter option lets you sort by who it's assigned to, who's following, who's mentioned, the last message's direction or channel, or by tag, then narrow further by whether a message was sent manually or through an automation. You can also sort by latest or oldest, and by all messages or manual messages only, so your inbox always shows what you want to see first.

Private conversations with your team

Internal chat is a completely separate, contact-free space for talking with teammates. It shows Unread, All, and Participants, and you can expand a thread to see everyone in it. You can add or edit participants on an internal chat at any time. Because it's private, internal chat is the right place to coordinate with your team about a contact without that conversation ever reaching them.

Save a filter combination as a view

Views let you save a filter combination you use often, so it's ready to go every time you log in, instead of rebuilding it from scratch. For example, save a view for every conversation tagged "active," or one for every conversation where you're mentioned. Give the view a name, set your filter, and combine filters with an and/or if you want something more specific. From then on, that view is just a click away.

Tips

Worth remembering

Check your unread messages first every time you open Conversations. The sooner you respond, the better things go.
If you're not sure what to do with a message yet, star it instead of leaving it unread. It's a simple way to make sure nothing gets forgotten.
Use internal chat, not a regular conversation, whenever you're talking to a teammate about a contact. It keeps that discussion private.
Build a view for anything you check often, like a specific tag or every conversation where you're mentioned, so you're not rebuilding the same filter every day.
Avoid deleting conversations. Archiving or simply leaving them in your history keeps the full record in case you need it later.

Check yourself

Quick Knowledge Check

Four quick questions on this lesson. One attempt each, and the answer is revealed either way.

0 of 4 answered

What does the New Conversation button let you do?

What's the difference between Assigned To Me and Followed By Me?

What makes internal chat different from a regular conversation?

What is a View, in Conversations?

Apply it

Try this with your favorite AI

🔍Design my daily inbox routine

You are helping me build a simple daily routine for working my Conversations inbox in my software. Here is my situation: - How many new messages I typically get in a day: [describe] - The channels I use most: [text, email, social, etc.] - What I tend to forget to follow up on: [describe] Based on that, give me a short, repeatable daily routine for checking unread messages, starring what needs follow-up, and clearing my inbox, in the order I should do it. Finish by asking me which part of the routine I want to turn into a saved View first.

📋Plan my saved views

You are helping me plan a small set of saved Views for my Conversations inbox. Here is my situation: - The tags I already use, or want to start using: [list them] - The types of contacts I most need to stay on top of: [describe, e.g. active leads, VIPs, current customers] Based on that, suggest 3 to 5 Views I should set up, what filter each one should use, and a short name for each so I know exactly what it's for.