Using the Shared Team Inbox

What the shared inbox is

The Inbox tab is StretchMail's receiving side: every inbound message routed to your mailboxes and aliases collects here in one shared, org-scoped view. It behaves like a modern mail client, so your whole team can triage from the same place instead of forwarding messages around.

The folders

Along the top (or side) of the Inbox you'll find folders, each with a live count:

Folder	What's in it
Inbox	Active mail — not archived, trashed, spam, or currently snoozed.
Unread	Everything you haven't opened yet.
Starred	Messages you've flagged for attention.
Snoozed	Messages hidden until a time you chose; they reappear in the Inbox then.
Archive	Handled messages you've cleared out of the Inbox but kept.
Trash	Deleted messages.
Spam	Messages you (or routing) marked as junk.

The counts come from the same folder counts the Dashboard uses, so the numbers you see in the Inbox match the badges elsewhere.

Step 1 — Read and triage a message

1. Open StretchMail → Inbox.
2. Click a message to open it. Opening it marks it read and clears it from Unread.
3. Use the actions on the message to triage:
- Star / Unstar — flag for follow-up (or clear the flag).
- Snooze — pick a date/time; the message leaves your Inbox and returns then. Unsnooze brings it back immediately.
- Archive — move it out of the Inbox but keep it. Restore returns it.
- Trash — delete it. Restore recovers it from Trash.
- Spam — report it as junk; it moves to the Spam folder.
- Mark unread — put it back in the Unread queue for later.

Every action is logged, so there's an audit trail of who did what to each message.

Step 2 — Search

Use the search box to find mail fast. StretchMail searches across the sender, recipient, subject, message ID, and body text, so a customer's name, an order number in the subject, or a phrase from the message all work.

Step 3 — Reply

Open a message and reply from within the Inbox. Your reply is composed against the receiving mailbox's identity and sent through StretchMail's governed send route, so it goes out under your verified domain. If sending isn't enabled yet on your workspace, the reply is queued safely and delivered once sending is switched on.

Worked example

Acme Co. funnels support@, sales@, and hello@ into one mailbox. On a Monday morning the team:

Opens Unread (12) and works top to bottom.
Stars two VIP customer emails for the account manager.
Snoozes a supplier quote until Thursday, when they'll actually need it.
Archives eight resolved threads and replies to two, which go out from hello@acme.co.
Reports one obvious phishing attempt as Spam.

By 9:15 the Inbox count is at zero and every message has a clear next step.

Tips

Snooze instead of leaving mail unread. Snoozing keeps your Inbox honest — the message comes back exactly when you can act on it.
Star for hand-offs. Use stars to mark what a teammate needs to pick up.
Archive aggressively. Archived mail is searchable forever; a clean Inbox is easier to triage than a full one.
Search by order or subject keyword rather than scrolling — it searches the body too.

FAQ

Is the Inbox shared across my team?
Yes. It's scoped to your organization, so everyone in the workspace sees and triages the same mail on your shared addresses.

What's the difference between Archive and Trash?
Archive keeps a handled message out of the way but readily searchable. Trash is for deletion (still recoverable via Restore until purged).

Where do snoozed messages go?
They leave the Inbox and sit in Snoozed until their time arrives, then reappear at the top of your Inbox.

Troubleshooting

No mail arriving. Inbound requires a verified domain with a live MX record and at least one mailbox with inbound enabled. See the setup checklist.
A message vanished. It may be snoozed, archived, or in Spam — check those folders or use search.
Replies aren't sending. Sending may not be enabled yet on your workspace; the reply is queued. Check the Engine card on the Dashboard.