The inbox screen

Checking Instagram and WhatsApp separately, trying to remember who already answered which message, and losing a message somewhere in between — the inbox exists to solve exactly those three problems. This guide walks the screen from left to right, box by box: what each button does and where each piece of information comes from.

💡 Everyone on your team can open the inbox. Writing a reply needs the "reply" permission, so a Viewer never sees the message box at all. Which conversations each person sees is set under Portfolio settings › Chat assignment rules.

In this article you will find:

• What the inbox is for
• The conversation list and filters
• The chat column and its header
• Message bubbles
• The message box
• The contact panel
• Situations you will run into

What the inbox is for

The inbox collects the direct messages of every connected account into one list. If you have an Instagram account and a WhatsApp number connected, both appear in the same column in the same shape; a small badge on the corner of the profile picture tells you which channel a chat came from.

The screen has three columns. The conversation list on one side, the selected chat and the message box in the middle, the contact panel on the other side. On a wide desktop screen all three sit side by side. On a tablet or a phone only one is on screen at a time: tapping a row opens the chat, the arrow in the header takes you back, and the contact panel becomes a drawer that slides in.

The filter you picked, your search and the open chat all travel in the address bar. That means you can copy the link of a chat and send it to a colleague; they will land on the same chat, as long as they are allowed to see it.

The conversation list and filters

The left column has a search box at the top, two strips under it, and the conversations below those.

The Search people or messages… box filters as you type; there is no button to press. You need at least two characters. The search covers both the person's name and the text of the conversation. When a message matches, the row shows that message with the matching words highlighted instead of the usual preview. See the Searching chats and messages guide for the details.

Below the search box a strip carries six tabs, and it scrolls sideways with your finger:

• Open — every conversation that has not been closed. The screen opens on this tab.
• Mine — open conversations assigned to you.
• Unassigned — open conversations nobody has taken yet. This tab is not drawn at all for someone who only sees their own chats.
• Unread — conversations with unread messages, including closed ones.
• Closed — conversations that have been closed.
• All — everything, whatever the status.

The first four tabs carry a number: how many conversations are in that tab. Closed and All show no number, because the size of those two ever-growing lists does not tell you anything useful.

If the account has more than one connection, a second strip appears under the filters: All connections plus each connection by name (the @handle on Instagram). An account with a single connection never sees this strip.

A row in the list shows the person's profile picture (or the first letter of their name), the channel badge on its corner, the name, the time of the last message ("3 minutes ago"), a preview of the last message, and the unread count if there is one. Unread rows are bold; closed conversations are dimmed. If the last message was an image or a voice note, the preview says Image or Voice message rather than a raw file name.

The list loads 30 conversations at a time. When there are more, a Show more link at the bottom brings the next 30.

The chat column and its header

Selecting a conversation opens the middle column. Its header holds:

• Back arrow — only on narrow screens; returns to the conversation list.
• The person's name, with a channel · account line under it ("Instagram · @store"). Teams with several accounts never have to guess which account a message arrived on.
• Assignee badge — the initials of whoever owns the chat, or a dashed add-person icon when nobody does. Tapping it opens the assignment menu. The badge only appears for people who are allowed to assign; see Assigning a conversation.
• Contact panel button — shows or hides the panel.
• Close / Reopen — changes the status of the conversation. Closing deletes nothing; it only takes the chat out of the Open list. If the person writes again, the chat comes back.

Right under the header, if an automation is running in that chat or an agent has taken it over, an automation strip appears. It carries the automation's name, a "Paused" note and the Hand back to automation / Stop session buttons. That strip is explained in Taking over and handing back automation.

Message bubbles

The chat area is drawn with the newest message at the bottom and opens scrolled to the last message.

What the person wrote sits on the left in grey; what you sent sits on the right in colour. A bubble can carry:

• A type label — when the message is not plain text, a small label sits on top: Story reply, Story mention, Shared post, Button tap, Location, Contact card, Template message and so on.
• An attachment — images appear inside the bubble and open larger when tapped; video and audio come with a player; files such as PDFs become links. A shared post or Reel is drawn as a card that takes you to Instagram, because Meta hands over the address of that content rather than the file.
• Button titles — reply buttons sent by an automation are listed under the bubble as dim chips.
• A source label — nothing is written when you typed the message in the panel. An automation's message says Automation; one sent from the channel's own phone app says From the channel's own app.
• The time and a status mark — sent, delivered, read. Reading the mark is covered in Message statuses.
• An error line — if the message could not go out, a red reason and a Retry link appear under the bubble.

Scrolling towards the start of the chat loads one page (50 messages) at a time; the Older messages link at the top brings the previous page.

Between the bubbles you will sometimes see a centred, dim line such as "Ayse handed the conversation to Mehmet". Those are not messages: they are visible to your team only and never reach the person you are writing to.

The message box

The box under the chat starts one line tall and grows up to six lines as you type. From left to right:

• Paperclip — picks a file from your computer. The file does not leave right away; it waits above the box with its name and you can drop it with (X). See Sending files and media.
• Media library — lets you pick a file you uploaded earlier, when the library is switched on.
• Saved reply — lists your stored answers. Typing / in an empty box opens the same list.
• The text field — up to 1000 characters.
• Send — puts the message on its way.

What the Enter key does is your own preference. With Enter sends the message switched on under My user settings › Preferences, Enter sends and Shift+Enter starts a new line. With it off, Enter starts a new line and the message goes with the Send button or Ctrl+Enter.

The moment you press Send the field empties and the message appears in the chat as a bubble; the server answer is awaited in the background. That is why you can type several messages in a row without waiting for the screen.

If you see something other than the message box, the reason is one of these:

• A template picker — the 24-hour messaging window has closed and this channel has approved templates. See Sending a WhatsApp template.
• A yellow warning line — the window is closed and there is no approved template to send, or the connection has a problem.
• Nothing at all — your role has no reply permission.

The contact panel

The person button in the header opens the panel on the side. It has four collapsible sections; Details starts open, the rest start closed.

Details shows the picture, name and handle, a Channel row and a Messaging window badge. A green badge means the window is open and says until when; a yellow one means it is closed. Instagram contacts also get a Follow block (do they follow you, follower count, verified account). At the bottom sit the person's Tags and an Open contact card link. Tags are read-only here; adding and removing them happens on the contact card.

AI profile shows the customer type and the suggested approach drawn from the conversation. Nothing is analysed on its own; someone has to press the button.

Notes are the internal notes your team leaves each other, and they never reach the customer. The number next to the title is the note count.

Conversation trail lists what happened and when: assignment changes, automation stepping aside, hand-backs, agents joining. A "Last reply: who · when" line sits on top. See The conversation trail.

Situations you will run into

The list is empty. Check which filter tab you are on: Mine hides everything that is not assigned to you. A leftover word in the search box empties the list too.

A chat will not open and says "This conversation could not be opened". It may have been deleted, its channel type may be switched off for the portfolio, or it may fall outside what you are allowed to see. The line on screen says which of these it is.

There is a warning at the top saying the account has no active connection. The connection has dropped: no new messages arrive and automations do not run. The Reconnect link takes you to the account's connection page.

A long number appears instead of a name. Meta did not hand over the profile of that person (for example an Instagram user who does not follow you). You can type a name by hand on the contact card.

New messages do not appear on screen. See New messages are not appearing.

If something on this screen keeps you stuck, read the Message could not be sent guide or contact our Support team.