The Unified Inbox is one screen for every conversation across every channel. Every WhatsApp thread, SMS exchange, Viber chat, email, Telegram chat, Facebook Messenger DM, and Instagram Direct lands here, attached to a Contact.
If you’ve been juggling a separate tab per channel, this is the page that replaces all of them.
The three columns
Conversation list (left). Newest activity first. Each row shows the contact’s name, the channel icon, a preview of the last message, the timestamp, and an unread badge if there’s something new.
Thread (centre). Messages in chronological order, oldest at the top, latest at the bottom. The reply box sits below the thread. Voice-call events appear inline alongside messages — you’ll see the call duration and outcome with a play button if there’s a recording.
Contact details (right). Everything we know about this contact: name, phone, email, tags, custom fields, assigned agent, last activity. Click the contact name to jump to their full profile.
Reply
Type in the box at the bottom of the thread. The send button uses the same channel as the inbound message — if the customer messaged on WhatsApp, your reply goes via WhatsApp.
To reply on a different channel (say, send an SMS even though the customer DM’d you on Instagram), use the channel dropdown on the reply box. The available channels depend on what you’ve configured for the company and what the contact’s opt-in status allows for each channel.
Filters and views
The list has filters across the top:
- All / Open / Closed — closed conversations are still searchable; they just stay out of the active queue.
- Assigned to me / Team / All — what you see depends on your role.
- Channel — pin to a single channel if you want.
- Unread only.
The combination of filters becomes a saved view if you click the bookmark icon. Saved views live in the left rail for one-click recall.
Open, close, snooze
Three states for any conversation:
- Open — actively in your queue.
- Closed — marked as done. Stays searchable, disappears from the default list.
- Snoozed — temporarily hidden, auto-reopens at the time you pick (e.g. “tomorrow at 9 AM”). Useful for “waiting on the customer to send their photo ID”.
Buttons for all three live at the top of the thread view.
Assign and reassign
Click the Assigned dropdown above the thread to hand the conversation to another agent. The new assignee sees it in their queue immediately. The previous assignee can still see it in All but it leaves their Assigned to me view.
For complex handoffs, add a note before reassigning (“I’ve already explained the refund policy; they want to talk to billing”) — the next agent sees it in the activity timeline. See Notes and the activity timeline.
Channel quirks worth knowing
Different channels have different rules. The inbox tries to abstract them, but a few leak through:
- WhatsApp — outside the 24-hour reply window, you can only send a pre-approved template, not free text. The reply box tells you when you’re outside the window.
- Email — replies are threaded by subject + reference. The reply box has subject and CC fields when you’re on email.
- Instagram and Facebook — Meta’s policy limits non-template replies to 24 hours, same shape as WhatsApp.
- SMS — no character limit on the UI side, but long messages are segmented for billing. The character counter shows segments.
See Channel history for more on how multi-channel threads work.
Search
The search bar at the top searches contact names, message contents, and tags simultaneously. It’s full-text — typing “refund” finds every thread where the word appeared in any message.
To search inside a specific thread, use Cmd/Ctrl-F in the browser.
Keyboard shortcuts
A few that pay off if you live in the inbox:
- J / K — next / previous conversation
- R — focus the reply box
- C — close the current conversation
- S — snooze (opens the picker)
- A — assign (opens the dropdown)
Press ? in the inbox for the full list.