A personal inbox is the inbox that belongs to one user. Every user in your account has one, and a line reaches a single person by routing to that person's personal inbox.
You set this in Aloware Admin under Lines, in a line's Routing & IVR settings.
A line's Routing & IVR settings, opened from Lines in Aloware Admin
Every user has a personal inbox
Aloware creates the personal inbox at the moment the user is created. This happens whether an admin adds the user, the user is created through the API, or the user joins through an invite.
Each user has exactly one personal inbox. The following actions keep the inbox the user already has:
Routing a line to the user for the first time.
Suspending or pausing the user, then reactivating them.
Every user who is not deleted has a personal inbox, including suspended users. Deleted users do not have one.
The Inboxes page lists each personal inbox under the name of the user who owns it, and the inbox filters include personal inboxes.
Missed calls on a personal inbox
A new personal inbox is created with Take a voicemail selected under Inboxes > inbox name > Missed calls, with the default text-to-speech greeting.
When nobody answers a call to the inbox, the caller hears the greeting and can leave a message. The owner gets a notification and finds the voicemail in their inbox.
Personal inboxes that already exist keep the missed call setting they have. An admin can change the setting on any personal inbox and click Save.
Routing a line to one user
A line sends its calls to one user through the An inbox option, the same option you use for a shared team inbox.
Go to Lines and open the line.
Select Routing & IVR.
Under Who should answer incoming calls?, select An inbox.
Open the Inbox list and pick the user under Personal inboxes. Type part of the user's name to find their inbox.
Click Save.
Personal inboxes are listed below the connected inboxes in the Inbox list
What happens after you save
Inbound calls on the line route to that user. An inbound text on the line is assigned to that user.
The Inbox list has two groups. Connected inboxes are team inboxes, and Personal inboxes each belong to one user. Routing has no separate option for a user, because a user is reached through their personal inbox.
If you switch the line to a connected inbox and save, the line no longer has a user attached. The other options, such as A voice flow and An IVR, stay available on the same page.
Lines that were set to a user
A line that was set to A user now opens with An inbox selected and that user's personal inbox chosen. Calls on the line keep reaching the same person.
These lines also show a banner titled Routing to a user moved to their personal inbox, which names the user. The banner appears only on lines that were set to A user.
The banner on a line that was set to a user
The banner goes away when you click Got it or when you save the line. If you want a different destination, pick another inbox in the Inbox list and click Save.
Transferring or adding a user on a call
In Talk on the web, personal inboxes appear in the inbox lists an agent uses during an active call. Both lists below include personal inboxes next to team inboxes:
Transfer to Inbox, in the Transfer panel.
Add Inbox, in the Add panel.
Picking a user's personal inbox in Transfer to Inbox rings that user, and the call connects when they answer.
Picking a user's personal inbox in Add Inbox with Introduce on rings that user. The agent and the user talk privately before the contact joins.
Seeing who can take the call
In both lists, each personal inbox shows a dot: green when its owner can take a call, red when they cannot. Connected inboxes show no dot.
Every inbox stays selectable whatever its dot shows. The following happens when the owner shows a red dot:
A transfer to that personal inbox goes to the inbox's missed call handling.
Adding that personal inbox shows "No eligible users found under the inbox to take the call."