# Shared Team Inbox for Website Chat | onmsg

> Handle website conversations as a team. Assign and return to queue, resolve and reopen, search history, and keep per-conversation drafts. Clean handoff from bot to human.

URL: https://onmsg.app/features/shared-team-inbox/

# A shared inbox for the conversations that need a person

Last updated: September 8, 2026

A shared inbox where your team views conversation history, replies, assigns, resolves, searches, and keeps a draft per conversation.

-   View history, reply with attachments, assign or return to queue, resolve and reopen
-   Search by contact details, messages, notes and tags; load older conversations
-   Per-conversation draft with retention if sending or saving fails

Start free

[https://chat.onmsg.app →](https://chat.onmsg.app)

 

See what's in each plan

[/pricing/ →](/pricing/)

No credit card required

![A shared team inbox with a conversation list, assigned states and an open reply panel](/images/misc/modern-3d-illustration-of-a-shared-team-inbox-with.webp)

-   Grounding controls, not guesswork
-   11 flow step types, no code
-   Shared inbox with handoff
-   Start on the free plan

## Where the conversations land

Automation handles the questions it was given the material to handle. Everything else needs a person, and the moment of transfer is where most chat setups quietly fall apart: the visitor repeats themselves, the teammate guesses at the context, and the goodwill built up over three helpful answers evaporates.

The shared team inbox is the other half of that handoff. When a flow escalates, a refusal threshold trips, a turn limit is reached or the provider errors, the conversation moves into the inbox with its history intact. Bot ownership stops. A person owns the reply, and can read everything that happened before they arrived.

![A conversation moving from queue to assigned to resolved across three labelled columns](/images/misc/modern-3d-illustration-of-a-conversation-moving-fr.webp)

### Common problems this solves

**“Two of us replied to the same person.”** Assignment gives a conversation an owner. Returning it to the queue hands it back deliberately rather than by silence.

**“We lost the thread from March.”** Search retained conversations by contact details, messages, notes and tags, and page back through older history. Idle conversations remain in retained history; going quiet is not the same as being deleted.

**“We type the same four answers all day.”** Personal and shared saved replies, searchable by title, shortcut or body. The shortcut inserts the text into your draft so you can adapt it before sending. It never sends on your behalf.

**“Half the context lives in someone’s head.”** Append-only private notes attach the background to the conversation, with an author and a timestamp, and stay out of visitor messages and AI history.

## How a day in the inbox goes

A conversation arrives in the queue. Someone picks it up, or it is assigned to whoever owns that kind of question. They read the history, including anything a Form or One field step collected on the way in. They reply, attaching a file if the answer needs one, pulling in a saved reply if it is a familiar question, and leaving a private note if the next person will need to know something.

If it turns out to belong to someone else, it goes back to the queue with the note attached. When it’s done, it’s resolved. If the customer comes back three weeks later, it’s reopened rather than starting over. Conversations can be reviewed on smaller browser screens too, which matters more than it sounds when the only person free is on a laptop in a café.

## What it deliberately does not do

Alerts are delivered while the inbox is open. In-app alerts cover relevant visitor messages and assignments, and optional desktop notifications work once you enable them and grant browser permission. There is no closed-browser push, no native mobile notification centre and no synchronised notification history across devices. Notes are append-only in this release: no editing, no mentions, no note attachments.

We list those here rather than letting you discover them in week two.

## Where this fits

The inbox is the destination for handoffs from the 

Grounded AI Agent

[/features/grounded-ai-agent/ →](/features/grounded-ai-agent/)

 and escalations built into the 

Visual Bot Flow Builder

[/features/visual-bot-flow-builder/ →](/features/visual-bot-flow-builder/)

. Once conversations are flowing through it, 

Response-Time Reporting

[/features/response-time-reporting/ →](/features/response-time-reporting/)

 tells you how quickly a human actually answered.

## When a shared inbox becomes necessary

The trigger is not volume. It is the second person.

One person answering everything needs no coordination, and any inbox is fine. The moment two people are both capable of replying, three costs appear immediately: deciding who takes what, avoiding duplicate replies, and passing context between them. Those costs are paid whether or not you have a tool, usually in interruptions.

The other trigger is chat itself. A live conversation that needs a person cannot wait for someone to notice an email. It needs somewhere to land, immediately, with its history attached.

## Conventions matter more than configuration

A shared inbox where nobody assigns anything is a group email with extra steps. Four rules are enough for most teams, and they are worth agreeing once rather than negotiating repeatedly:

**Assign when you reply.** It costs a click and removes the question entirely.

**Return to queue rather than walking away.** Explicit beats implicit, particularly when someone is busy.

**Resolve when the customer’s need is met**, not when you are tired of the thread. Reopening exists for the times you were wrong.

**Leave a note whenever the next person would otherwise ask.** Notes are append-only, so write facts and keep them short.

Teams that agree these four in the first week get most of the benefit. Teams that do not tend to conclude, six months later, that the tool did not change anything.

For more depth, read 

how the shared inbox routes and assigns conversations

[/guide/how-the-shared-inbox-routes-and-assigns-conversations/ →](/guide/how-the-shared-inbox-routes-and-assigns-conversations/)

 and 

shared team inbox vs a shared email address

[/guide/shared-team-inbox-vs-a-shared-email-address/ →](/guide/shared-team-inbox-vs-a-shared-email-address/)

.

Product tour

## Team Inbox in the product

Clearly labelled example views of the screens involved.

![An inbox conversation being assigned to a teammate with a return-to-queue option](/images/misc/modern-3d-illustration-of-an-inbox-conversation-be.webp)

Assign to a teammate, or return the conversation to the queue.

![A saved replies library with shortcuts being inserted into a draft reply](/images/misc/modern-3d-illustration-of-a-saved-replies-library-.webp)

Saved replies insert into the draft. You still send manually.

![An append-only private note panel beside a visitor conversation, with author and timestamp](/images/misc/modern-3d-illustration-of-an-append-only-private-n.webp)

Private notes stay out of visitor and AI history.

![Inbox search results filtered by contact details, messages, notes and tags](/images/misc/modern-3d-illustration-of-inbox-search-results-fil.webp)

Search retained conversations by contact, message, note or tag.

Why onmsg

## Why teams use onmsg for team inbox

A shared inbox where your team views conversation history, replies, assigns, resolves, searches, and keeps a draft per conversation.

### One conversation, one owner

Assign a conversation to a teammate or return it to the queue. Resolve it when it's done and reopen it when the customer comes back. Nobody has to ask the group chat who is handling it.

### The handoff arrives with context

A human handoff stops bot ownership and moves the conversation across with its history intact, including whatever a flow captured on the way. The teammate reads instead of re-asking.

### Drafts that survive a bad moment

Each conversation keeps its own reply draft, and drafts are retained if sending or saving fails. Losing a long reply to a dropped connection is a small thing that ruins an afternoon.

### Saved replies that don't send themselves

Personal and shared libraries, searchable by title, shortcut or body. A shortcut inserts the text into your draft. You review and send it yourself. Nothing goes out unread.

### Notes the visitor never sees

Append-only private notes carry an author and timestamp, sit apart from public replies, and stay out of visitor messages and AI conversation history.

### Findable months later

Search retained conversations by contact details, messages, notes and tags, and page back through older history when you need the thread from last quarter.

## A shared inbox compared to a group email address

| Capability | Typical website chat tool | onmsg |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Ownership | Whoever replies first, or nobody | Explicit assignment, with return to queue |
| Status | Read or unread | Queued, assigned, resolved, reopened |
| Internal discussion | Forwarded threads and reply-all | Append-only private notes with author and timestamp |
| Repetitive answers | Copy and paste from a doc | Personal and shared saved replies with shortcuts |
| Finding an old thread | Mailbox search, if it was not deleted | Search retained history by contact, message, note or tag |
| Arriving from website chat | Pasted transcript, if any | Handoff moves the live conversation across with history intact |

Questions

## Team Inbox FAQs

### How does a conversation get from the chat widget to the inbox?

Through a handoff. A flow escalation, a refusal threshold, a turn limit, a timeout or a provider error can all route the conversation to a person. The handoff stops bot ownership, so from that point a human owns the reply.

### Can we assign conversations to specific people?

Yes. Assign a conversation to a teammate, or return it to the queue if it belongs to someone else. Conversations can also be resolved and reopened as things change.

### What happens to my draft if the connection drops?

Each conversation keeps its own reply draft, and drafts are retained if sending or saving fails. You come back to what you had written rather than starting again.

### Do saved reply shortcuts send messages automatically?

No. A shortcut helps you find a saved reply and inserts it into your draft. You review it, edit it if the situation needs it, and send manually.

### Can visitors see private notes?

No. Notes are team-only, carry an author and timestamp, and are excluded from visitor messages and AI conversation history. Note and reply drafts are kept separate too.

### Can I edit a note after posting it?

Not in this release. Notes are append-only, and note editing, mentions and note attachments are not part of the current feature.

### How do alerts work?

In-app alerts cover relevant visitor messages and assignments, and clicking one opens its conversation. Optional desktop notifications are available after you enable them and grant browser permission. Alerts are delivered while the inbox is open. There is no closed-browser push or synchronised notification history across devices.

### How far back can we search?

As far as your retained history goes, which depends on the retention setting for your plan. Search covers contact details, messages, notes and tags, and older conversations load through pagination. Idle conversations stay in retained history, inactivity is not the same as deletion.

## Related features

### Grounded AI Agent & Knowledge Base

An AI agent that answers from your own knowledge base, with grounding modes, configurable refusals, and handoff to a person.

Read more

[Grounded AI Agent & Knowledge Base →](/features/grounded-ai-agent/)

### Visual Bot Flow Builder

A drag-and-drop builder for website conversations, with 11 step types for greeting, capturing enquiries, branching, and handing off.

Read more

[Visual Bot Flow Builder →](/features/visual-bot-flow-builder/)

### Response-Time Reporting

Reports over 7/30/90-day windows covering first human response, coverage, percentile timing, resolution timing, and first-responder and daily breakdowns.

Read more

[Response-Time Reporting →](/features/response-time-reporting/)

![](/images/hero/modern-3d-illustration-of-a-small-team-picking-up-.webp)

No credit card required

## Ready to set up team inbox?

A shared inbox where your team views conversation history, replies, assigns, resolves, searches, and keeps a draft per conversation. Start on the free plan and configure it on your own site.

Start free

[https://chat.onmsg.app →](https://chat.onmsg.app)

 

Compare plans

[/pricing/ →](/pricing/)

-   Free plan available
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-   Your content, your controls