An inbox is a group of users who answer the calls your lines send to it. Each inbox has its own settings for who it rings, in what order, how long callers wait, and what happens to calls nobody takes. Only account admins can change an inbox's settings.
This article explains the inbox types, who has access to an inbox, how inboxes appear in Aloware Talk, how to open an inbox's settings, and what each settings section covers. The other articles in this collection explain each section in detail.
Inbox types
Aloware has two types of inboxes. On the Inboxes page, each row shows the inbox's ID and type under its name:
Connected inbox: shared by the users and teams in its layers. Conversations that come in through the inbox's lines land here, and any member can view, manage or reassign them. Calls to a connected inbox wait in a queue while its users are rung.
Personal inbox: belongs to one user. It holds conversations assigned directly to that user or sent and received through their own line, and is available automatically once a line is assigned to them.
Calls to a personal inbox are not queued. The caller hears a ring tone, and if the user is busy, declines, or doesn't answer, the call follows the personal inbox's missed call settings.
Use the All, Personal, and Connected filters at the top of the page to show one kind at a time. The columns show each inbox's Lines, Teams, Users, Active and Available counts, and Dial mode.
Members and watchers
A connected inbox has two kinds of people, both set in its Members section:
Members: the users and teams in the inbox's layers. They are rung for the inbox's calls and manage and respond to its conversations.
Watchers: users and teams who have access to the inbox without being rung. Supervisors and managers use watching to monitor conversations and review interactions without taking part. With Email watchers turned on, watchers also get an email for texts, voicemails, and missed and abandoned calls.
See Inbox members and layers for how to add both.
How inboxes appear in Aloware Talk
In Aloware Talk, the inbox panel groups the inboxes each user can see:
All Inboxes: combines the conversations from the user's personal, connected and watching inboxes in one list. Each conversation is labeled with the inbox it belongs to.
Personal Inboxes: the user's own inbox.
Connected Inboxes: the connected inboxes the user is a member of.
Watching: the connected inboxes the user watches.
For working with conversations in these inboxes, see How to set up and use Aloware Talk Inboxes.
Creating an inbox
You create an inbox from the Add inbox page. It has the same settings menu as an existing inbox, with the sections you need before the inbox goes live: General, Members, Routing, Queue, Missed calls, Texts and Notifications.
In Aloware Admin, click Inboxes.
Click Add inbox.
Work through the sections in the settings menu, as described below.
Click Add inbox at the top right to create the inbox.
Only Name is required. Every other section starts with the settings shown below, so you can create the inbox first and adjust it later from the inbox's settings.
General
Enter a Name that's easy to spot in your reports. Use Description to add up to 190 characters about what the inbox is for.
Members
The section starts with one empty layer, Layer 1.
In Users, pick the users this layer rings. In Teams, pick teams to ring all of their members.
To add the next layer, click Add layer and add users or teams to Layer 2. Calls ring Layer 1 first and move to the next layer when nobody there answers.
Each layer can hold up to 50 agents. Don't mix App users and external phone numbers in the same inbox. Watchers aren't on the Add inbox page: add them from the inbox's Members section after you create it, or with Bulk add users. See Inbox members and layers.
Routing
These settings decide how the inbox rings its members:
Ring mode: starts at Longest available. You can also pick Simultaneous or Round-robin.
Ring each user for: starts at 60 seconds. The options run from 10 to 90 seconds.
Repeat callers: starts at Ring the inbox. Other options send repeat callers to the contact's owner or the last agent they spoke with first.
Make the answering agent the contact owner: off.
Queue
These settings decide how long callers wait and what they hear:
Max queue hold time: starts at 2 minutes. While the inbox has no members who can take calls, the section shows "No active users can ring in this inbox yet." Once it has members, it shows how long one ringing round takes.
Treat calls as missed when no agents are available: off.
While callers wait: Say the caller's position, Custom wait music, Offer a callback, Offer to continue by text and Offer to leave a voicemail are all off, and Repeat the prompts every is set to 1 minute.
Agents press 1 to accept: off.
See Queue settings.
Missed calls
Use the line's missed call settings is selected, so each line that routes to the inbox handles its missed calls as its own settings say. Choose Take a voicemail to give the inbox its own voicemail and greeting, or Send an AloAi agent to handle it. See Missed calls.
Texts
Assign incoming texts starts at To the contact owner, and Mark as read on reply is on. See Texts, notifications and visibility.
Notifications
Under Notify members of, Voicemails is on and Inbound texts is off. Voice Analytics summaries and Daily activity report aren't on the Add inbox page; turn them on from the inbox's Notifications section after you create it.
After you create the inbox
Visibility, Lines, Test routing and Audit log appear in the inbox's settings once it exists. To send calls to the new inbox, route a line to it from the line's Routing & IVR settings, then use Test routing to check who a call would ring. See Lines and test routing.
Checking your setup
The Inboxes page shows Setup details to review, with a count of lines, inboxes and users that may need attention. Click it to open Check your setup, which lists:
Lines with no inbox
Inboxes whose members are all suspended
Inboxes with no lines
Users with no inbox
Each group says where to fix it, for example in a line's Routing & IVR settings or in an inbox's members.
Opening an inbox's settings
In Aloware Admin, click Inboxes.
Click the inbox's name.
Pick a section from the settings menu on the left, or type in Search settings to find a setting.
Click Save at the top right after you change a setting. Unsaved changes appears beside Save from your first edit, and you can also press Cmd+S (Mac) or Ctrl+S (Windows) to save. If you try to leave the page with unsaved changes, Aloware asks you first.
The top of the page shows the inbox's name, type, and ID. The More menu holds User settings, Activity, Mark all as read, and Delete.
You can't delete an inbox while a line uses it as its fallback inbox. When you try, Aloware shows that the inbox can't be deleted yet and lists those lines under Fallback for. Point each of those lines at another inbox in its Routing & IVR settings, then delete the inbox.
Long sections list their settings in an On this page column on the right. Mark all as read, in the More menu, asks you to confirm before it runs.
For other users, the settings open read-only, but they can still search them and use Test routing.
The settings menu
The settings menu lists these sections, in this order:
Section | What it covers | Article |
General | The inbox's name and description. | |
Members | Layers, the users and teams in each layer, watchers, and email watchers. | |
Routing | Ring mode, Ring each user for, Repeat callers, and Make the answering agent the contact owner. | |
Queue | Max queue hold time, Treat calls as missed when no agents are available, and what callers hear and can do while they wait. | |
Missed calls | What happens to a call that reaches the inbox and nobody takes. | |
Texts | Assign incoming texts and Mark as read on reply. | |
Notifications | Which notifications and email reports the inbox's members get. | |
Visibility | Respect agents' visibility limits and What members can see. | |
Lines | The lines that send their calls and texts to this inbox. | |
Test routing | Who a call to this inbox would ring right now. | Lines and test routing, and the section below |
Audit log | Changes made to the inbox. | The section below |
Checking who a call would ring
Open Test routing to see who a call to this inbox would ring right now. The test lists each layer and shows each user's Status and whether they Can take a call. The top of the panel shows how many users can take a call now and when the test ran. Click Run again to repeat the test.
When a user can't take a call, the table says why.
The test doesn't look at who owns the contact or the conversation.
Reviewing changes in the audit log
The Audit log lists changes made to the inbox, with the user who made each change, the action, and the time. Entries include dial mode and repeat contact routing changes, and users and watchers added to or removed from the inbox.
Narrow the list with the filters above it: Search agent for the user who made the change, Select an event type for the kind of change, and the date filter, which starts at All time.
The Select an event type filter lists the kinds of changes the log records, including Inbox Created, Name Changed, Description Changed, Dial Mode Changed, Text Assignment Mode Changed, Max Wait Time Changed, Max Wait Time One Ringing Round Changed, Repeat Contact Routing Changed, SMS Notifications Changed, Voicemail Notifications Changed, Watcher Email Notifications Changed, User/Team Added and User/Team Removed.
Click the arrow next to an entry to see the change in detail, including the value before and after the change.
