Team Inbox

One inbox the whole team works from, without stepping on each other.

• Assign a conversation so everyone knows who is looking after it
• Mine collects the open conversations you are assigned to or following
• Leave internal comments and @mention a teammate. The customer never sees them
• See which teammates have seen a conversation and who has not
• Small markers in the thread record who assigned, archived or snoozed it and when
• Save a reply as a draft, or let an AI assistant draft one, for anyone on the team to check and send

Team Inbox adds the team tools to Messages. Customer emails and texts still land in the same place. What changes is that you can hand a conversation to a person, talk about it privately beside the customer's messages and keep your own list of what you are following.

Who Gets It

By plan

On Starter the team features are hidden. You will not see Mine, Snoozed, Assign, the comment bar or Send and snooze….

By role

Team members see every conversation with a known customer. They can comment, assign, snooze, archive, trash, subscribe and add participants. They never see messages from unmatched senders. Those are for owners and admins only.

One-person businesses. If you are the only person in the business there is nobody to hand a conversation to, so Mine, Assign, participants and the Assignee filter are hidden. Comments and Snooze stay, so you can still leave yourself a note on a conversation.

The Views

The pills across the top of Messages are the same on the portal and in the app.

On the portal the pills scroll sideways, so drag or scroll the row to reach Archived and Trash.

Unread and Mine carry a count. The count on Mine is the unread conversations in it, not the total. To change who an unread conversation stays unread for, see Shared or Personal Unread below.

On the portal, the filter icon narrows the list by Channel (Email, SMS or Calls) and by Assignee (Unassigned, Me or a teammate's name). Here Unassigned means no teammate has been assigned. The sort icon offers Newest, Oldest, Newest unreplied and Oldest unreplied. The two unreplied options put conversations still waiting on a reply from your team at the top. A red dot on the icon shows one of them is on. The app has the same filters as chips on its search page. The app has the same sort button, to the right of the views.

See Snooze, Archive and Trash for what each of those states does.

Assigning a Conversation

On the portal

1. Open the conversation
2. Click the Assign icon in the thread header. If it is already assigned, the tooltip reads Assigned to and the person's name
3. Pick Assign to me or a teammate. You are in the list too, shown with (you) after your name

Assign to me only shows when the conversation is not already yours. Unassign only shows once someone is assigned. To hand a conversation back, open the same menu and choose Unassign.

In the app, tap … in the thread header and choose Assign, or tap the assignee's face in the header.

Worth knowing:

• The person you assign is sent a push notification on their phone titled Assigned to you. Assigning yourself sends nothing
• There is no email and no pop-up on the portal for an assignment. On the portal, watch the count on Mine
• Only owners and admins can be assigned a conversation from an unmatched sender
• The list does not show who a conversation is assigned to. Open the conversation or use the Assignee filter

Mine

Mine is the list of conversations you follow. You follow a conversation when you are its assignee or one of its participants. You become a participant when:

• You are assigned to it
• You leave a comment on it
• A teammate @mentions you in a comment
• A teammate adds you with + in Participants
• You press Subscribe
• You reply to the customer yourself. Automated messages sent in your name do not count

What stays in Mine. Every open conversation you follow. With the default setting it also keeps conversations a teammate has archived that you have not archived yourself. Those carry an Archived badge. Snoozed and trashed conversations are in nobody's Mine.

Archive for me. When a teammate has archived a conversation and it is still in your Mine, the header button reads Archive for me. It takes the conversation out of your Mine only. You see Archived for you, with an Undo that puts it Back in your Mine.

Archive read. In the Mine view, Archive read clears out every conversation you have already read that a teammate has archived. The button shows how many it will clear and offers an Undo afterwards.

Prefer a tidier Mine? You can have teammate-archived conversations leave your Mine as soon as you have read them. See Personal Settings below.

Participants and "Seen"

Under the contact's name in the thread header, the portal shows the participants as overlapping initials with a count. Click them to open Participants.

Each person is listed as Assignee or Participant, with one of these beside their name:

Under the participants, Seen by lists teammates who have read the conversation without taking part, with when they last looked.

"Seen" here is about your teammates, not the customer. It tells you who on your team has opened the conversation. It says nothing about whether the customer has read your message. Cooledge does not track email opens and there are no customer read receipts.

Use + to add a teammate. Use Subscribe or Unsubscribe at the bottom to follow or stop following it yourself. If you are the assignee, a note above the button warns you: Unsubscribing also unassigns you.

In the app, tap the faces in the thread header, or … then Participants. The wording is the same.

Internal Comments and @Mentions

A comment is a note to your team that sits in the thread beside the customer's messages. Comments are never sent to the customer.

On the portal, the comment bar sits under the reply box. It reads Add internal comment, only your team can see it. Press Enter to post and Shift+Enter for a new line. The bar has buttons to attach files, mention a teammate and add an emoji.

In the app, the box reads Internal comment. You can attach from the camera, your photo library or your files and mention a teammate. There is no emoji button.

Mentioning a teammate

Type @ to open Mention a teammate and pick a name. You can mention up to 20 people and attach up to 20 files in one comment. A mentioned teammate becomes a participant, so an open or archived conversation shows up in their Mine.

Replying, editing and deleting

In the app, long-press a comment for Reply, Copy, Edit and Delete.

Who is told about a comment

Comment and mention notifications are mobile push only. There is no email and no pop-up on the portal. A teammate who only uses the portal is not alerted. They see the conversation turn unread. An open or archived one also shows in their Mine. If it is urgent, make sure they have the app with notifications on.

A comment marks the conversation unread for your teammates. If the conversation is open or archived, it also comes back into the Mine of everyone following it. Snoozed and trashed conversations stay out of Mine until they are reopened. A comment does not reopen an archived conversation for the whole team. Only a new message from the customer does that.

Owners and admins can also comment on a conversation from an unmatched sender.

The Small Markers in a Thread

Between the messages you will see small pills with a time. They record what the team did with the conversation, for example:

• Assigned to Mike by Jess
• You assigned yourself
• Unassigned from Mike by Jess
• Archived by Jess
• Snoozed by Mike until tomorrow 8:00 am
• Moved to Trash by Jess, Reopened by Mike and Restored by Mike
• Reopened by a new message
• Reopened by a missed call
• Snooze ended

Two things to know. The history starts on the day Team Inbox arrived, so older conversations have no markers for earlier changes. The markers are also hidden while a thread filter is on, so set the filter back to All to see them.

A small amber bolt on a message means Automated message. Cooledge sent it for you, for example a quote follow up, an invoice reminder or a booking reminder.

Calls in the Thread

Every call to your business number now sits in the customer's thread beside their texts and emails, on the portal and in the app.

• Missed call with the time. If the caller left a voicemail, the recording, the AI summary and the transcript sit inside the same card
• Answered call with the time and how long you talked
• A grey label on the card when the number they rang has one, for example Google Ads
• Lead created or Existing lead on a call from a number that is not on any customer. Click or tap it to open the lead

A missed call works like a message from the customer. It makes the conversation unread, brings it back into Open from Archived, Snoozed or Trash and puts it back in the Mine of everyone following it. It waits for a reply until someone texts or emails back.

Click the top line of a call card on the portal, or tap it in the app, to see its Call details. They show when the call rang and ended, with the talk time for an answered call. A missed call also shows why it was missed (No answer, Went to voicemail or Calls were off), how long the voicemail is and when the missed-call text went out. Every call shows the caller's number or Private number, the number they called with its label and the lead when there is one. The customer's Communication tab shows the same details, without the lead, in its Call Details panel.

An answered call is a record of the call. It does not make anything unread or reopen anything. It counts as a reply, so the conversation stops showing as waiting.

A call from a number that is not on any customer shows in Open with an Unmatched badge, which only owners and admins see. Link it to a customer the same way as an unknown text. A caller who withheld their number shows as Private number. They only appear when they leave a voicemail.

The Calls filter, in the thread and in the list, shows calls and voicemails together. There is no new notification for a missed call. Voicemails and new leads still send theirs.

Drafts

A draft is a reply waiting in its conversation for someone on your team to check it and send it. It sits at the end of the thread as a Draft card, after any Send later cards. Nothing goes to the customer until a person sends it.

Where drafts come from

• On the portal. Start an email or a text in Messages. Once there is something to save, a Save as draft icon appears in the composer toolbar. Click it and the composer clears, you see Draft saved and the draft card appears in the thread
• In the app. Write an email, then tap Cancel. The app asks Save this email as a draft? with Save as draft, Discard and Keep editing. If you have not changed anything (only your signature or the quoted email is there), Cancel just closes
• From an AI assistant or an integration. A connected app such as Claude, or your own integration through the Cooledge API, can write replies as drafts. It can never send them. See Drafts from an AI assistant below

Nobody is notified when a draft is saved, whoever saved it. Drafts are found through the Drafts list, the Draft label on conversations and the dashboard.

The draft card

The card shows Draft and who wrote it, for example Drafted by Jess Taylor · 5 minutes ago. A draft from an app shows the app's name or the name of the API key it used. Below that is who it is going to, the subject for an email, the start of the message and a count of any files.

The card has two buttons, Edit and Delete. There is no send button on the card, so the whole message is always read in the composer before it goes.

Everyone who can see the conversation can see its drafts and can edit, send or delete them. Team members never see drafts in conversations from unmatched senders, the same as the conversations themselves.

Delete asks Delete this draft? with the note It will not be sent. Choose Delete draft to go ahead or Keep it to leave it. You then see Draft deleted.

Editing and sending a draft

1. Click or tap Edit on the card. The draft opens in the composer under a strip that reads Editing a draft
2. Change anything you like
3. Send it with the send button as usual. The menu on the button also offers Save draft to keep your changes without sending, Send later… to schedule it, Send and archive and Send and snooze… (Growth and Scale)

Click the X on the strip to stop editing. The draft stays exactly as it was.

In the app, tapping Cancel while you edit an email draft asks Save your changes to this draft? with Save changes, Discard changes and Keep editing. A text draft opens in the text box. Save draft is in its send options.

Worth knowing:

• Whoever sends it is the sender. The person who sends or schedules a draft is the sender of record, whoever wrote it. The normal sending rules are checked at that moment
• It goes out with the sender's signature. An email draft goes out with the signature of the person who sends it. When you open a draft, any signature saved on it is taken out and your own is added, even on a draft you wrote yourself. If you have no signature of your own, the draft goes out with none. If you do not want yours on it, remove it before you send
• Undo puts it back on its card. With undo send on, a draft you send is held for 6 seconds like any message. Click Undo and you see Send undone. It is back in your drafts. The draft is back on its card, not in the composer. Click Edit on it to carry on
• Send later makes it a Send later message. A scheduled draft becomes an ordinary Send later card. Cancelling that card cancels the message. It does not go back to your drafts
• Two people on one draft. If a teammate changes, sends, schedules or deletes a draft while you have it open, your save or send stops and you see Someone else changed this draft. Reload it to see their version., It has already been sent, It has already been scheduled or This draft was deleted. Your words stay in the composer, so nothing is lost
• If a draft fails to send. A held send that fails goes back on its draft card, with any changes you made. If it shows as a red Not sent card instead, click or tap Edit on that card to take it back to your drafts. Saving it any other way shows This message began as a draft. Take it back to your drafts to edit it.

The Drafts and Scheduled lists

Drafts lists every draft waiting across the business, one row per draft. Scheduled lists every Send later message still to go. Each row shows the customer, whether it is an email or a text and its first line (an email's subject when it has one), then Drafted by with the name and age, or Sends with the time.

• On the portal they sit in the rail on the left of Messages, under All inboxes, on every plan. The rail starts as a strip of icons, with a dot on an icon when something is waiting. On a wide screen, open the rail with the button at its top to see the names and counts. The rail needs a laptop or desktop sized window. Click Drafts or Scheduled and the conversation list swaps for that list. Click a row to open the conversation with its card in view. Click All inboxes to go back to your conversations
• In the app, tap the inbox button at the top left of the Messages list. It shows a dot while drafts are waiting. Pick Drafts or Scheduled, then tap a row to open the conversation

Use the sort icon in the list header to change the order. Drafts offers Newest first and Oldest first. Scheduled offers Sending soonest and Sending latest. Your choice is remembered on that computer or phone.

When there is nothing in a list you see No drafts waiting or Nothing scheduled. Team members see both lists in the app, without anything from unmatched senders.

Drafts in a conversation that is in Trash are left out of the Drafts list, its counts, the Draft label and the dashboard. They come back if the conversation is restored. Send later messages in those conversations still show in Scheduled, because they still send.

Spotting a waiting draft

• In the conversation list. A conversation with a draft waiting carries a small Draft label, on the portal and in the app
• On the dashboard. The Inbox card on the portal dashboard shows Drafts waiting with a count and the three newest drafts. Each shows the customer, the first line (an email's subject when it has one) and Drafted by with the name. Click one to open the Drafts list. The section only shows while drafts are waiting

Drafts from an AI assistant

You can let an AI assistant (Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor) or your own integration read your conversations and write replies as drafts. It can never send a message. A person on your team always reads the draft and sends it.

• The owner decides. An app only gets this when the account owner allows it. On the consent screen for a connected app it shows as Read conversations and messages and Write message drafts (never sends). For an API key, tick the Messages row (Read and Write drafts (never sends)) when you create the key. Keys and connected apps you already have do not get it automatically
• Only to the conversation's own party. An app drafts only to the customer, one of their contacts or the unknown sender. It cannot add other addresses, CC, BCC or files
• A limit on waiting drafts. At most 3 drafts from apps can wait in one conversation and 200 across the business. Your team's own drafts have no limit
• Its own drafts only. An app can change or delete only the drafts it wrote, while they are still waiting
• Growth and Scale. Apps use the Cooledge API, which is on Growth and Scale plans

Developers can find the details in the Messaging API guide and the MCP server guide.

Shared or Personal Unread

By default unread is shared. When a new message arrives on a conversation nobody is assigned to, it is unread for everyone. The first person to read it clears it for the rest of the team.

Once you are assigned to a conversation or taking part in it, unread becomes personal for you. It stays unread until you open it yourself, even if a teammate has read it.

An owner or admin can change this in Settings → Inbox, under Your team. Choose Per person to keep every conversation unread for each person until they open it.

Personal Settings

These settings are yours alone. Changing them does not change anything for your teammates.

• On the portal: Settings → Inbox, under Your preferences
• In the app: More, then Messages under App Settings (the row that reads Your send button and archive settings)

The teammate archive card starts on Keep it in Mine until I archive it. Whichever you pick, the card's own hint applies: A new customer message or comment brings it back either way. That is about archived conversations. Snoozed and trashed ones stay out of Mine until they are reopened.

Mobile notifications

In the app, go to More → Notification Preferences and find the Messages section.

Mentions, Assigned to you and Comments appear on Growth and Scale.

These toggles only apply while the app is open. They are saved on your phone and decide whether a notification shows while you are using Cooledge. When the app is closed, the notification still arrives even with a toggle off. To stop notifications altogether, turn them off for Cooledge in your phone's own settings.

New customer messages notify owners and admins. A team member is also notified when the conversation is assigned to them.

In the Mobile App

The app has the same views, the same actions and the same wording. The differences:

• Getting there. Messages opens from the message icon in the app header. It is not in the bottom tab bar
• Actions. Everything lives in one sheet. Tap … in the thread header to open Conversation, with Assign, Participants, Snooze, Archive, Mark as unread, View customer and Move to Trash
• Swipe. In the list, swipe a conversation left to archive it or right to move it to Trash. An Undo appears at the bottom left
• Filters. Tap Search conversations to open the search page. The chips there filter by Email, SMS, Calls, Unassigned, Assigned to me, a teammate's name and Unmatched
• Drafts and Scheduled. The inbox button at the top left of the Messages list opens All inboxes, Drafts and Scheduled, the same lists as the rail on the portal. The mention count on All inboxes is portal only
• Saving a draft. Drafts are saved from the email composer's Cancel. A new text cannot be saved as a draft in the app, but a text draft that is already there can be edited and saved
• Refreshing. The portal updates live. The app refreshes when a notification arrives, when you come back to it or when you pull down to refresh

Troubleshooting

I can't see Mine or Assign. Check two things. First your plan: both need Growth or Scale. Second your team: if you are the only person in the business they are hidden because there is nobody to assign to. They appear once you add a teammate.

A team member can't see a conversation from an unknown sender. That is by design. Messages from senders who are not matched to a customer are visible to owners and admins only. Once an owner or admin links the sender to a customer, team members can see the conversation. See Snooze, Archive and Trash.

A team member can't log in to Messages on the portal. Team members use the mobile app. The portal is for owners and admins.

A restricted team member can't find Messages. Restricted team members have no inbox, on the portal or in the app.

I didn't get a notification. Assignment, comment and mention notifications are push notifications on your phone only. Check that the app is installed and signed in and that notifications are allowed for Cooledge in your phone's settings. If the app was open at the time, also check the toggle under More → Notification Preferences. You also never get a notification for your own comment or for assigning yourself.

A conversation came back into my Mine. A new customer message reopens the conversation. A new comment brings an open or archived conversation back into your Mine, even after you archived it for yourself.

My teammate archived a conversation but it is still in my Mine. That is the default, so nothing you follow disappears without you seeing it. Use Archive for me or Archive read. You can also change the teammate archive setting in your personal settings.

I commented on an archived conversation and my teammates did not see it in Open. A comment does not reopen a conversation for the team. It shows in the Mine of the people following it. If the whole team needs to see it, use Move to Open. While the conversation is still in your Mine, that is under More actions.

I can't see the Save as draft icon on the portal. It appears once there is something to save, so type a few words, add a subject or attach a file. It is also hidden while you are editing a scheduled message or a draft. To keep changes to a draft, use Save draft in the menu on the send button.

I can't see Drafts or Scheduled on the portal. They are in the rail on the left of Messages, which needs a laptop or desktop sized window. On a smaller screen, use the app.

An assistant's draft is not in the Drafts list. Someone on your team may have sent, scheduled or deleted it. A sent draft is in the conversation as an ordinary message. A scheduled one is in Scheduled.

Does "Seen" mean the customer read my message? No. In Participants, Seen is about your teammates. Cooledge does not offer customer read receipts.

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Related: Unified Inbox · Snooze, Archive and Trash · Send Later and Undo Send · Two-Way Text Messaging

Need a hand? Email us at support@cooledge.com.au