Inbox overview
Find your way around the Inbox, its three panes, the conversation header and the notices it shows when the live connection drops.
The Inbox is where your team reads and answers every WhatsApp conversation on your numbers, as it happens. A conversation opens the moment a customer messages one of your WhatsApp numbers, or the moment you message them first.
Note: Owners, Admins, Supervisors, Agents and Read Only members can open the Inbox. Read Only members can read but not reply, take or resolve conversations.
Go to Inbox in the left icon rail. The Inbox fills the whole window, so the conversation always has the most room.
The three panes
| Pane | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Conversations (left) | The search box, the view tabs, the filters and the list of conversations, newest activity first. |
| Conversation (middle) | The conversation header, the messages (oldest at the top, newest at the bottom) and the reply box. |
| Customer (right) | Contact info, custom fields, the AI copilot, commerce, conversation details, tags and internal notes. See The customer panel. |
You can drag the dividers between the panes to make them wider or narrower. To give the conversation more room, click Hide customer details at the right end of the header. Click Show customer details to bring the panel back.
On a phone-width screen you see one pane at a time: the list, then a conversation (with a back arrow to Back to conversations), then the customer details behind the Customer details button in the header.
Reading a row in the list
Each row in the list shows:
- the customer's name and how long ago the last message was (for example "2h"), or the date if it was more than a week ago;
- what kind of message came last, such as "Photo received" or "Message sent" (the list never quotes the message itself);
- an unread count, if there are messages you haven't read;
- the reply window state (see The 24-hour window and templates);
- Resolved or Closed (inactive) when the conversation has reached one of those states;
- the first-response timer, if your organisation has set response targets (see Teams & Routing);
- conversation tags, the number of internal notes, and who holds it: Held by you, Held by a colleague, or Nobody has picked this up.
Opening a conversation marks its messages as read. The browser tab shows your unread count, for example "(3) Inbox".
The conversation header
The header is one compact bar of one or two lines. From left to right it shows:
- the customer's name and a status badge: Open, Resolved or Closed;
- the reply-window countdown (see The 24-hour window and templates);
- Lead or Converted badges, if the conversation has been marked (see Leads and attribution);
- the customer's WhatsApp number (click it to copy it) and the business number the conversation came in on;
- where the conversation came from, for example an ad, a tracked link, your campaign or Organic (see The customer panel);
- Add tag, to put a conversation tag on it;
- up to three fields from your own system, if your organisation has set up Contact lookup.
On the right are the action buttons: take or give back the conversation, the assignee menu, and Mark resolved or Reopen. See Take, give back and hand over and Resolve and reopen. The More actions menu holds Mark as lead, Mark as converted and Copy the WhatsApp number.
Between the messages you'll see short centred lines that record what happened, for example who took the conversation, who it was assigned to, and when it was marked resolved or closed.
When the live connection drops
The Inbox updates live: new messages, assignments and notes appear without reloading. When the connection is working, nothing is shown. If it isn't, a banner appears at the top:
| Banner | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Reconnecting | The live connection dropped and is being re-established. What's on screen is still correct; new messages may take a moment. | Nothing. Wait a moment. |
| You may have missed something | The connection was gone long enough that not everything could be replayed. The Inbox has been reloaded, so what you see now is current. | Click Got it. Check recent conversations, as a message may have arrived and been answered while you were away. |
| The live connection is not available | New messages won't appear on their own. Everything else works. | Click Reconnect now, or reload the page. |
| Your session ended | You're no longer signed in here: the session expired, you signed out elsewhere, or your access changed. | Sign in again. |
Related
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