What lands in the shared inbox?
Every text sent to any of your numbers, from any campaign, grouped into one thread per contact.
When a reply matches a lead, the thread shows their name, company and the campaign that reached them, next to the texts your sequence sent. Texts from people who are on no campaign still arrive, shown under the number they came from.
The inbox listens for new replies while it is open and shows you when they arrive. Filter the queue to one campaign when you want only its replies, and search with Cmd K, or Ctrl K on Windows.
A reply also ends that lead’s sequence, so nobody gets a scheduled follow-up after they have already answered.
How does a team share one inbox?
Through queues everyone sees the same way: Needs reply, Snoozed, Done today and Everything. When one person marks a thread done, it leaves Needs reply for the whole team.
- Needs reply holds every thread waiting for an answer. A thread that has waited more than 4 hours is marked overdue, so nothing sits unnoticed.
- Snooze hides a thread for 3 hours, until tomorrow, for 3 days or until next week, and it comes back when it is due.
- Mark done clears a thread once it is handled. Select several to clear them together, or reopen one from Done today.
- Keyboard: J and K move through the queue, Enter opens the reply box and E marks a thread done.
Seats are unlimited on every package. Owners, Admins and Members can answer, and Viewers can read threads without replying.
The inbox is part of the platform fee. Replies you receive are free, and a text you send from the inbox uses texts the same way a campaign text does, one per segment, at 5¢ down to 2.5¢ each. The pricing page has the full table.
Which number does a reply go out from?
The number the lead texted. Their phone keeps one thread with your business, whoever on your team is typing.
When you answer in the inbox, Textually sends from the number the lead’s message arrived on. If that number is no longer active, it uses the number that last texted the lead, then one of the campaign’s numbers.
Automated steps follow the same rule: each lead stays on the number that first texted them. One number per lead explains how that number is picked.
What help does the inbox give with replies?
Each reply is sorted, and a draft and a summary are one click away. Nothing is sent until a person presses Send.
- Replies are labelled Interested, Declined, Out of office or Ambiguous, so the warm ones are easy to spot.
- Draft writes a first reply from the conversation into the reply box, for you to edit before sending.
- A short summary of the thread helps whoever picks it up next catch up before they answer.
For wording that gets answers, see how to write a business text.
How do I know when someone replies?
Every member of the workspace is alerted in the bell inside Textually, and each person can also get an email or a browser notification.
Each person chooses email and browser alerts for themselves in Settings, under Notifications. Opt-out replies are flagged in the thread, and Textually does not text that contact again. The texting rules page explains how opt-outs work.
Fast answers matter most with new leads. Our speed to lead guide covers what the research says about response times.
What does a good inbox routine look like?
Short and regular: someone owns the inbox at set times of the day, and every thread ends answered, snoozed or done.
- Start each session in Needs reply, oldest overdue threads first.
- Answer what you can in one text. A short question back, such as a choice of two times, is easy to answer from a phone.
- Snooze anything that waits on someone else, so it comes back on its own instead of sitting in the queue.
- Mark a thread done once it is handled, and check Done today at the end of the day for anything that needs a follow-up.