A shared email account is one mailbox with one password that several people sign into. It is support@ open in a browser tab on every desk, with the password in a chat message from the day the company started. A shared inbox is the same address connected to a tool where each person has their own login and every conversation shows who replied.
This guide covers what a shared login is, what goes wrong once three people use it, and the alternatives in order of effort. It ends with the steps to move off a shared password without losing a message or the address itself.
Two people can share one login and get by. At three, nobody knows who replied, customers get two answers, read marks lie and a password reset locks everyone out. Keep the address. Give each person their own sign-in through delegation, a Google Group, a Microsoft 365 shared mailbox or a shared inbox tool, then retire the shared password.
What is a shared email account?
A shared email account, also called a shared email address or team email address, is a normal mailbox used by more than one person. Someone created support@ on Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 or the company's hosting plan, and the password went around. Everyone signs in as the same user, sees the same inbox and sends as the same name.
There is nothing wrong with the address. Clients should write to one place, and a team address outlives any employee. The problem is the login behind it. One set of credentials cannot tell the system which person is reading, replying or deleting.
What goes wrong at three people
Two people sharing a login can talk across a desk. The third breaks the arrangement, because the mailbox cannot carry what the first two did by voice.
- Nobody knows who replied. Sent mail shows the shared name. A client writes back asking for the person they spoke to, and three people open the thread to work out who that was.
- Two replies go to one customer. Two people open the same new message at the same time and both answer, so the customer gets two different prices.
- Read marks lie. A message is marked read the moment anyone opens it. A glance on a phone makes it look handled for everyone else.
- A password reset locks everyone out. One person changes the password, or the provider forces a reset, and every other device is signed out until the new password gets around.
- Two-factor authentication needs one phone. The code goes to whoever registered the number, who relays it over chat, which defeats the point of the code. New-device checks from Google or Microsoft land the same way.
- Security and audit go blank. Login history shows one user from six places. When someone leaves, the password they know still works until a person remembers to change it.
The alternatives, in order of effort
Each route keeps the address and replaces the shared password with per-person access. They run from least setup to most.
1. Delegation: Gmail delegate access or a Microsoft 365 shared mailbox
In Gmail, the mailbox owner adds delegates under Settings, Accounts and Import, Grant access to your account. Each delegate opens the mailbox from their own Google account with no password handed over. Google documents 10 delegates on a personal account and 1,000 on Workspace, with 40 using it at once. The steps are in Gmail delegate access.
In Microsoft 365, an admin creates a shared mailbox in the admin center and adds members with Full Access plus Send As or Send on Behalf. It needs no license up to 50 GB and opens in Outlook as an extra mailbox. Either way it is still one inbox: read state is shared and there is no assignment.
Delegation is enough when two or three people need to see the same mail and can agree by voice who takes what.
2. A Google Group Collaborative Inbox or a Microsoft 365 group
A Google Group with Collaborative Inbox turned on receives mail at the group address. Members take, assign and resolve conversations at groups.google.com, at no extra cost in Workspace. The work happens on two screens, mail in Gmail and state in Groups, and the only note is the one typed into the assignment email. Setup and limits are in Google Groups Collaborative Inbox.
A Microsoft 365 group gives a team a group mailbox in Outlook, a calendar and shared files, read from each member's own login. It has no assignment or resolution state, so who is handling a message is still a matter of convention.
A collaborative inbox is enough when the team needs assignment and a done state and can live without notes, a typing indicator or reporting.
3. A shared inbox tool
A shared inbox tool connects the mailbox once, through the provider's sign-in or IMAP, and gives every teammate their own seat. Each thread has an owner, a state, internal notes and a record of who replied. A typing indicator shows when someone is already answering, and reporting counts open threads and response times. It costs per seat.
Shared login, delegation, collaborative inbox and shared inbox tool compared
| Shared login | Delegation or shared mailbox | Collaborative inbox or group | Shared inbox tool | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who replied | Unknown; sent mail shows the shared name | Depends on an admin setting for the sent line | The member who replied, from their own account | Recorded on every thread |
| Assignment | None | None | Take, Assign and Drop by hand | By hand or by rule, with states |
| Internal notes | None | None | Only in the assignment email | On the thread, with mentions |
| Security | One password known to everyone, one phone for 2FA, no audit per person | Per-person sign-in and audit; the owner holds the password | Per-person sign-in and audit | Per-person sign-in and audit; no shared password |
| Cost | Free | Included with Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 | Included with Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 | Per seat |
How to move off a shared login without losing mail
The address stays. Nothing about the move changes where clients write or what they see. The steps retire the password while the mail keeps flowing.
- Pick the route: delegation for two or three readers, a collaborative inbox for free assignment, or a shared inbox tool for notes and reporting.
- Name one owner for the account. That person keeps the credentials in a password manager and registers the phone for two-factor authentication.
- Connect the mailbox. For delegation, the owner invites each teammate. For a tool, the owner connects the mailbox through Google or Microsoft sign-in, or with the IMAP password for a hosted mailbox. Existing mail stays where it is.
- Test before the next step. Send one reply from each person and confirm it lands in Sent.
- Change the password once, from the owner's device. Every other session signs out, and the shared login ends there.
- Rotate anything else that used the old password: app passwords, the website contact form, the CRM connector, the printer that scans to email. Each gets its own credential.
- Remove access for people who have left, review connected third-party apps in the account's security settings, and write down who owns the account.
Where Sektra fits
We build Sektra, an AI shared inbox for client teams, the fourth column in the table. A Gmail or Outlook mailbox connects through Google or Microsoft sign-in, so there is no shared password and Sektra never sees the account's password. An IMAP mailbox connects with its own password, stored encrypted. Each teammate has their own login and seat.
Every thread shows an owner and who replied, so the question that starts the trouble at three people has an answer on the thread. Notes and mentions stay internal. A typing indicator shows when a teammate is already replying. Read state can be shared or kept per person, chosen when the inbox is connected. The assistant drafts; a person reviews and sends.
To try the lighter routes first, Gmail delegate access and Google Groups Collaborative Inbox cover each in detail. The full feature reference is on /product.
The move is a short list: pick the route, name an owner, connect the mailbox, test the sends, then change the password once. The address clients write to stays the same.
