Team Inbox & Roles
When the AI hands a conversation to a person, your team picks it up in the Team Inbox: a shared workspace for claiming, replying to, transferring, and resolving live conversations across all your channels. This guide covers how the inbox works and the three roles that control who can do what.
Overview
The Team Inbox is where humans take over. The AI handles routine messages on its own (see Escalation & Human Handoff), and when a conversation needs a person, it lands here for your team to claim and answer. While a conversation is claimed, the AI stays out of the way so the customer is not getting bot replies on top of a real person.
Where you land at login depends on your role:
- Owners and managers land on the full client portal (dashboard, automations, settings) and can open the inbox from there.
- Agents land directly on the Team Inbox, which is their workspace.
Team seats are a paid feature. The free plan is single-user; Creator includes 1 team member, Professional 5, and Business and Enterprise are unlimited. See Inviting Team Members.
The Inbox
The inbox lists conversations across every connected channel (Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, SMS) in one place. Each conversation carries a status so you can see at a glance what needs attention:
- Pending — waiting to be picked up.
- Escalated — the AI flagged it for a human and paused on it.
- Active — claimed by a team member and being handled.
- Resolved — closed out; the AI resumes on any new message.
An escalated conversation has the AI paused on it whether or not anyone is online. It waits in the inbox until a teammate claims it. The full handoff logic is in Escalation & Human Handoff.
Your Availability
Each team member sets their own status: Online, Away, or Offline. This matters beyond presence: when the AI escalates a conversation, it only does the immediate, assigned handoff (and tells the customer "a team member will be with you right away") if at least one teammate is marked online or away. If everyone is offline, the customer is told the team has been notified and will follow up instead.
The inbox sends a quiet heartbeat while you have it open, so your online status stays current. Keep at least one person marked online during business hours to unlock the instant handoff.
Claiming a Conversation
To take a conversation, you claim it. Claiming assigns it to you, flips its status to active, and opens it. Two people cannot claim the same conversation: the first claim wins and the second sees "already assigned," so two agents never end up replying over each other.
The moment a conversation is assigned to you, the AI stops responding on it. From there it is yours until you transfer, release, or resolve it. A claim can fail for a couple of honest reasons:
- The messaging window has closed. Meta only allows businesses to send messages within a window after the customer's last message (7 days on Instagram and Facebook). If that window has passed, you cannot send a normal reply until the customer messages again.
- The customer opted out. If they have opted out of messages, they need to message you first before you can re-engage.
On WhatsApp, if the 24-hour window has closed you can still claim the conversation to send an approved template message, but regular free-form replies stay disabled until the customer writes back.
Replying & Notes
Once a conversation is yours, you reply right from the conversation view and your message goes to the customer on their channel. The full message history, including what the AI already said and the AI escalation brief, is there so you are not starting from scratch.
Internal notes are private to your team. Use them to leave context on a conversation (what the customer needs, what you have tried, who to loop in). Notes are never sent to the customer; they only appear inside the portal for your team.
Transfer, Release, Resolve
Three ways to hand a conversation off when you are done with it:
- Transfer sends it directly to another team member, with an optional handoff note that is recorded on the conversation. The other person becomes the assigned agent and the AI stays paused. Use this when someone else is better placed to help.
- Release hands the conversation back to the AI. It clears your assignment and the AI resumes handling new messages. Use this when the customer no longer needs a person.
- Resolve closes the conversation as done. It clears your assignment, marks the conversation resolved, and the AI will handle any new message the customer sends later. Use this when the issue is settled.
Every one of these drops a short system note into the conversation ("transferred from X to Y", "released back to AI assistant", "resolved by X") so the history stays clear for whoever looks next.
Tags
Tags let you label conversations (for example VIP, Refund, Follow up) so you can organize and find them. Team members can apply and remove existing tags from a conversation; creating and deleting the tag list itself is done by the account owner. Applying and removing tags is available on Professional and up.
Roles & Permissions
ChatGenius has three roles. The owner is the account holder (the person who signed up and pays). Team members you invite are either a manager or an agent.
| Capability | Owner | Manager | Agent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Use the Team Inbox (claim, reply, transfer, resolve) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Full client portal (dashboard, automations, knowledge, AI config) | Yes | Yes | No |
| Invite, remove, or change roles for team members | Yes | No | No |
| Billing, plan changes, and cancellation | Yes | No | No |
| Company settings, password, and security | Yes | No | No |
| Connect or disconnect integrations (Meta, calendar, CRM) | Yes | No | No |
| Partner / referral payout info | Yes | No | No |
| Delete the account | Yes | No | No |
In short: an agent is a front-line responder who works the inbox. A manager can do everything in the day-to-day portal alongside the owner, but the things that affect the business itself (billing, account settings, connections, and the team roster) stay with the owner.
Inviting Team Members
Only the owner manages the team. From Team Management in the portal, you invite a member by name and email and choose their role (manager or agent). They get an email invitation; when they accept and set a password, their account is created and they can log in.
How many people you can add depends on your plan:
- Free — no team members (single user).
- Creator — 1 team member.
- Professional — 5 team members.
- Business and Enterprise — unlimited.
If you are at your plan's limit, ChatGenius will tell you and point you to upgrade. The owner can also change a member's role or remove them at any time from the same screen.
Best Practices
- Mark yourself online during business hours. That is what turns an escalation into an instant "a team member will be right with you" instead of a follow-up-later message.
- Claim before you reply. Claiming both pauses the AI and locks the conversation to you, so two people do not answer the same customer.
- Resolve when you are done, release when the AI should take back over. Resolving closes it out; releasing returns it to the AI mid-conversation.
- Use internal notes for handoffs. A one-line note on transfer saves the next person from re-reading the whole thread.
- Make front-line responders agents, not managers. Reserve manager for people who also need the full portal. Keep billing and settings with the owner.
FAQ
What is the difference between releasing and resolving?
Release hands the live conversation back to the AI to keep handling. Resolve closes the conversation as done; the AI will still pick up any brand-new message the customer sends afterward. Both clear your assignment.
Does the AI reply while I am handling a conversation?
No. As soon as you claim a conversation, the AI pauses on it. It only resumes if you release or resolve the conversation.
Can two agents work the same conversation?
No. Claiming locks it to one person. A second agent trying to claim the same one sees that it is already assigned. You can transfer it to them instead.
Why can't I reply to a conversation?
Usually the messaging window has closed. Meta only lets businesses send within a window after the customer's last message (7 days on Instagram and Facebook, 24 hours on WhatsApp for free-form replies). Once the customer messages again, the window reopens.
What can a manager do that an agent cannot?
A manager can use the full client portal (dashboard, automations, knowledge base, AI configuration), while an agent is limited to the inbox. Neither can touch billing, account settings, integrations, or the team roster; those are owner-only.
Can a manager add team members?
No. Inviting, removing, and changing roles is owner-only. Managers and agents cannot manage the team.
How many team members can I have?
It depends on your plan: none on Free, 1 on Creator, 5 on Professional, and unlimited on Business and Enterprise.
Next Steps
- Understand what sends a conversation to the inbox in Escalation & Human Handoff.
- Reduce avoidable handoffs by filling out your Knowledge Base.
- Shape how the AI handles tricky moments with the AI Instruction Builder.
- Browse the full documentation hub.