The General and Members sections of an inbox's settings decide what the inbox is called, who answers its calls, and in what order. Members are organized into layers, and watchers can follow the inbox without being rung.
To open these sections, go to Inboxes, click the inbox, then click General or Members in the settings menu.
Naming the inbox
In General, enter a Name for the inbox. The name is required and is what you see in your reports, so keep it short and easy to spot. Use Description to add up to 190 characters about what the inbox is for.
How layers work
A layer is an ordered group of users and teams inside the inbox. Calls ring the first layer, and when nobody there answers, they move on to the next. Each layer rings its users and its teams' members, and everyone in the same layer has the same priority.
Every user in a layer who can take a call is tried before the call moves to the next layer.
After the last layer, the call starts again at the first layer, until someone answers, the caller hangs up, or the inbox's Max queue hold time runs out. How users inside one layer are rung depends on the inbox's ring mode, covered in Routing: ring mode, ring time and repeat callers.
The top of the section shows how many agents are in the inbox. Each agent is counted once, even when they are in more than one layer or team.
Adding users and teams to a layer
Each layer has two fields:
Users: pick the individual users this layer rings.
Teams: pick teams, and the layer rings every member of each team.
Use these controls to change the layers:
Add layer adds a new layer below the last one.
Remove layer removes that layer from the inbox.
Convert to team turns the layer's users into a team. See How to convert inbox users into a team.
Click Save after you change the layers.
Layer limits
Keep these limits in mind when you build layers:
Each layer can hold up to 50 agents. The limit applies to each layer, not to the whole inbox.
Do not mix App users and external phone numbers in the same inbox. A user who answers on an external phone number gets the call as a regular phone call, so that phone's voicemail can pick up the call before an App user answers.
Keeping app users and external phone numbers apart
Every user in an inbox answers calls in one of two ways:
Aloware number users answer in the Aloware browser or apps. Users set to not answer calls are also in this group.
External phone number users answer on their own phone number, such as a mobile or desk phone. Extensions are also in this group.
These two groups handle calls differently, so an inbox can only have one of them. The Users picker in each layer lists both groups, and the inbox locks to whichever group you add first:
Aloware number user added first: the External phone number users group is grayed out, with the note “This inbox has Aloware number users, so external phone number users can’t be added.”
External phone number user added first: the Aloware number users group is grayed out, with the note “This inbox has external phone number users, so Aloware number users can’t be added.”
The two kinds handle calls differently, so keep them in separate inboxes. To use both, create one inbox for app users and another for external phone numbers and extensions.
To switch an inbox to the other kind, remove all of its users and teams. Both groups are then available again, and the next user or team you add sets the kind.
Paused users are listed separately under Paused Aloware number users and don't count toward the inbox's kind while they are paused.
Adding watchers
Watchers have access to the inbox without being rung. Add them in the Watchers card, using the Users and Teams fields.
Turn on Email watchers to send watchers an email for texts, voicemails, and missed and abandoned calls in this inbox.
Adding watchers to several inboxes at once
Use Bulk add users to add the same watchers to more than one inbox in one step:
Go to Inboxes.
Click More, then Bulk add users.
In Users, select one or more users.
In Inboxes, select the inboxes to add them to.
Click Add users.
Bulk add users in the More menu on the Inboxes page
The Add users to inboxes dialog
Bulk add users adds the selected users as watchers only. To add someone to a layer, open the inbox's Members section.
In both Users and Inboxes, Select All picks every option at once and Clear Selection clears your choices.
Select All and Clear Selection in the Users list
Select All and Clear Selection in the Inboxes list