The shared inbox is where the team does the work. It is not just a larger version of the phone app. Each person signs in separately, while the conversation history, ownership, and team replies stay visible in one place.

The simplest daily habit is: open the thread, understand the last exchange, decide who owns the next action, and leave the conversation in an honest state.

1. Find the next conversation

Open Inbox and start with the filters that match your shift. Open shows active work. Pending is useful when you are waiting for a customer or another part of the business. Resolved keeps completed conversations out of the active queue without deleting their history.

The assignment filters help when several people are working at once. Use Assigned to me for your queue and Unassigned when you are looking for work that still needs an owner.

WATeamInbox shared WhatsApp inbox with status and assignment filters — Use the status and assignment filters above the conversation list to choose the next piece of work. The contacts and messages shown here are synthetic demo data.

2. Read the thread before you answer

Read the latest messages and scan far enough back to understand the request. Check the contact details and any notes or tags in the profile panel before you make a promise.

This small pause prevents the most common shared-inbox mistake: answering the latest sentence without knowing what another teammate already agreed to.

WATeamInbox contact panel showing customer details, conversation context, and tags — Contact details, notes, and tags add context without taking the conversation out of the inbox. The customer and details shown here are synthetic demo data.

3. Reply from the inbox

Write the reply in the message composer. You can send text, add supported attachments, use a saved quick reply, or schedule a follow-up when the message should go out later.

Before sending, check the connection identity shown by the composer. If the workspace has more than one WhatsApp number, the sending number matters.

Watch the message status after you send. A reply that is still pending is different from a reply that was delivered, and the team should know which one it is before closing the conversation.

WATeamInbox message composer showing a reply, attachment, sending identity, and status controls — Check the sending identity, message, and status controls before you finish the reply. The message shown here is synthetic demo data.

4. Make ownership visible

If you are taking the next action, assign the conversation to yourself. If someone else should handle it, leave a shared note and make the handoff visible rather than relying on a private message outside the inbox.

The assignment guide covers the handoff in more detail.

5. Resolve or leave it pending

Use Resolve when the customer’s request is complete and no one needs to act. Use Pending when the conversation is waiting for a customer, a colleague, a delivery, or another clear next step.

A resolved conversation keeps its history. It can be found again through search or reopened when the customer comes back.

WATeamInbox conversation status menu showing Open, Pending, and Resolved options — Choose the status that matches the real next action. The conversation and status choices shown here are synthetic demo data.

A good end-of-shift handoff

Before you finish a shift, look at your assigned conversations and ask:

Is every active conversation assigned to the person who will act next?
Does a teammate need a shared note to understand the context?
Are completed conversations resolved rather than left open?
Did any reply fail or remain unsent?

That check takes less time than explaining the whole queue in a separate chat.

Keep going

Try the workflow with one real conversation.

Create a small Cloud workspace and test the handoff with a teammate, or use the open-source application on infrastructure you control.

Create a Cloud account See Cloud plans Read self-hosting docs