A shared inbox is an email address that several people work from together, where each message has an owner, a status and a place for internal notes. The address is usually something like support@, hello@ or clients@. Everyone on the team sees the same mail, and the tool shows who is handling what.
That definition separates it from four neighbors that get used as synonyms: shared mailbox, team inbox, unified inbox and help desk. This article defines each, shows how a shared inbox works, who uses one, and how to set one up on Gmail or Outlook. We build Sektra, a shared inbox for Gmail, Outlook, IMAP and WhatsApp Business, and it appears in one section near the end.
A shared mailbox is the container: one address several people can open. A shared inbox is the container plus a layer of work. Who owns each thread, what state it is in, what the team said about it, and how fast it was answered. Team inbox is another name for the same thing. A unified inbox merges several accounts into one view. A help desk turns each email into a numbered ticket.
What is a shared inbox?
In plain Gmail or Outlook a message is read or unread, and that is the whole of its state. In a shared inbox the same message is also assigned to a named person and sits in a state such as open, waiting on the client or done. It carries a conversation among the team that the client never sees. The mail is the same. The layer around it is new.
Two kinds of product deliver that layer. Some render it in the mail client the team already uses, as an extension in the Gmail interface. Others are a separate workspace that syncs with Gmail or Outlook two ways, so mail keeps flowing in the original mailbox while the team works in the tool. A few replace the mail client outright. The comparison pages on this site sort the market by that question.
| Term | What it is | Owner and status per message | Internal notes | Typical example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shared mailbox | A Microsoft 365 mailbox several licensed users open from their own accounts, or a Gmail mailbox opened by delegates | No | No | info@ opened by three people in Outlook |
| Shared inbox | A shared address worked through software that adds assignment, status, notes and reporting | Yes | Yes | clients@ connected to a shared inbox tool |
| Team inbox | The same thing as a shared inbox, used by some vendors as the product name | Yes | Yes | A sales team's inbound address |
| Unified inbox | One view that merges several accounts or channels, with or without team features | Depends on the tool | Depends on the tool | Gmail, Outlook and WhatsApp in one list |
| Help desk | A ticketing system where each email becomes a numbered ticket with SLAs and a knowledge base | Yes, as tickets | Yes | A support team closing thousands of tickets a month |
How does a shared inbox work?
Assignment
Every thread gets one owner. Someone assigns it by hand, or a rule does it: round robin across the team, to whoever has the least open, or by sender or topic. The owner's name sits on the thread where everyone can see it, which is the single change that ends both the double reply and the unanswered message.
Internal notes
A note sits beside the thread, visible to the team and invisible to the client. Mention a colleague and they are pulled in with the whole context in front of them. Without notes, that context travels in a forward, which leaves the shared address and splits the record of the conversation.
States
A thread is open, waiting on the client, snoozed until a date, or done. Snooze returns the thread at the right moment, or earlier if the client replies first. In Gmail and Outlook, teams imitate states with labels, categories and flags, and the meaning drifts because nothing enforces it.
Collision detection
When two people open the same thread, a typing indicator on the thread reads A teammate is typing a reply. It is the only protection that does not depend on anyone remembering to claim a thread first. How to stop two people replying to the same email covers the conventions for teams without it.
Analytics
Response time and resolution time, per teammate, per inbox and per client, reported as percentiles so one slow week cannot hide behind an average. Gmail and Outlook report none of this. The analytics help article explains how Sektra computes the numbers, and the method is a fair test for any tool.
Sync with the mailbox
A shared inbox that syncs two ways keeps labels, categories, archive and read state identical on both sides. A reply sent from the tool goes out through the connected mailbox. That is what lets a team adopt a shared inbox one person at a time, because a colleague still in plain Gmail or Outlook sees the same mail.
Shared inbox vs shared mailbox
A shared mailbox is a Microsoft 365 object. An admin creates it under Teams and groups, Shared mailboxes in the admin center, adds members, and it needs no license up to 50 GB. Members get Full Access, and Send As or Send on Behalf so replies carry the shared address. It appears in each member's Outlook under Shared with me. It has no assignment, no notes and no reporting.
Google Workspace has no shared mailbox object. Its equivalents are Gmail delegation, where several people open one mailbox, and a Google Group with Collaborative Inbox, which adds Take and Assign buttons in the Groups interface. The Google Workspace guide compares those routes. On both platforms the shared mailbox is where a team starts, and the shared inbox is what it adds on top when the mailbox stops being enough.
Shared inbox vs help desk
A help desk turns each email into a ticket with a number, a status, an SLA timer and, usually, a customer portal and a knowledge base. It is built for volume from people you will help once. A shared inbox keeps email as email, with a thread per conversation and a client who comes back for years.
Pick a help desk if your inbound is thousands of one-time requests a month and the goal is to close them. Pick a shared inbox if your inbound is the same clients writing every week about work in progress, and the goal is that nothing promised gets lost. The comparison pages set Help Scout, Intercom and other desks beside Sektra.
Team inbox and unified inbox
Team inbox is a product name for a shared inbox. When a vendor says team inbox, expect assignment, notes and states, and check for a typing indicator and analytics.
Unified inbox is a different idea: one list that merges several mailboxes or channels, such as two Gmail accounts, an Outlook shared mailbox and a WhatsApp Business number. Some unified inboxes are personal tools with no team features. Some shared inboxes are also unified, and that is the combination a client team wants.
Who uses a shared inbox?
- Agencies, where several people serve each client and the client writes to one address.
- Account management teams, where the question is what we promised this account, and who is handling their open request.
- Customer success teams, where renewals and escalations arrive by email and need an owner within the hour.
- Recruiting firms, where candidates@ and clients@ receive mail that several consultants act on.
- Logistics teams, where a shipment thread passes between dispatch, customs and the customer.
- Founders, who share hello@ before the first hire and need a handoff that does not lose history.
How to set up a shared inbox on Gmail or Outlook
On Gmail
For a free start, turn a Google Group into a Collaborative Inbox: open the group, click Group settings, and under Enable additional Google Groups features select Collaborative Inbox. Or delegate the mailbox from Settings, See all settings, Accounts and Import, Grant access to your account. For a shared inbox tool, connect the Gmail account that receives the mail through Google sign-in. The Gmail integration page covers what syncs.
On Outlook
Create the shared mailbox in the Microsoft 365 admin center under Teams and groups, Shared mailboxes, with Add a shared mailbox, then Add members. It appears in members' Outlook after a restart. For a shared inbox tool, connect the shared mailbox with an account that has access to it, through Microsoft sign-in. Connecting an Outlook shared mailbox has the steps for Sektra, and the Outlook integration page covers categories, flags and Focused Inbox.
Then, on either
Agree on three states and name them. Set assignment rules so no thread waits for a volunteer. Reply from the shared address. Review the oldest open thread every week. The twelve rules for a team mailbox go through each one with the setting that enforces it.
Where Sektra fits
We build Sektra, a shared inbox that is also unified. It is a separate workspace that syncs two-way with Gmail, Outlook, IMAP and WhatsApp Business. Gmail and Outlook connect through Google or Microsoft sign-in, so Sektra never sees those passwords, and an IMAP mailbox connects with its password, stored encrypted. Mail stays where it is.
It carries everything in the section above: assignment by rule, notes and mentions, states with snooze, the typing indicator, and analytics as percentiles per teammate and client. Every thread is scored by what it would cost to ignore and tagged by intent as it arrives, so the inbox is already in order when the team opens it.
What no shared mailbox, team inbox or help desk keeps is the record underneath. The memory layer is a record per client of what was promised in either direction, with dates, what they asked that has no answer yet, and who is involved. Lens is the panel beside every thread that shows that record.
The assistant answers questions about any client with links to the threads the answer came from, and drafts replies for a person to send. The product page describes each part, and the comparison pages set it beside every tool named here.
