Create and Manage Inbox Views
Inbox views allow you to sort and display conversations according to the criteria that you set into quick links on the left sidebar. Use these views to organize and monitor the queue in the way that works for your team.
In this article
When to Use Inbox Views
Create Inbox views when you want to have quick access to a group of conversations, as well as a count of those conversations, that match specific criteria rather than having to run a search.
For example, if you want to keep an eye out for any conversations that have been waiting for longer than 24 hours for a reply from your team, a view can make this quick and easy. Create a view with that set for the condition and save it to your favorites.
Now you'll have one-click access to see all of those in one view from the left sidebar.
Scenarios where views will come in handy will depend totally on your team's needs and there are a lot of possible combinations of criteria you can specify — experiment with them to find what works for your team.
Some common uses we've seen:
- Watch for conversations that have not had a reply in X time period to make sure you're meeting SLAs or response time commitments.
- Keep track of conversations tagged with specific tags that need quicker action, for example
vip
orurgent
tags - Collaborate to watch for conversations assigned to a teammate that's on vacation or leave
- Separate conversations by subject so that form submissions can be quickly accessed
You can create a view with many different conditions and combinations of conditions to make accessing what you need quick and easy.
Create an Inbox View
Find the Views section of the left sidebar, under the default folder list. Click All, then Create a View.
For our example, we're going to create a view available to everyone with permissions to the J&G Sales Inbox. We will name it Waiting 24 Hours and set it to display all conversations that have been waiting for a reply for longer than 24 hours.
- Click in the name field and replace the words New View with the name of this view, Waiting 24 Hours.
- Click the dropdown box that says Just me to change the visibility to Everyone.
- Click the plus sign button to add a new condition, then scroll down and click Waiting Since.
- Click the drop down that says Waiting less than to change that to Waiting longer than.
- Click the dropdown that says 1 hour to change that to 24 hours.
- Click Add, then Create.
Make it a Favorite
Mark a view as a favorite to have single-click access from the sidebar. Click All to view the list of views, then hover over the view you want to make a favorite and click the star icon that appears. You can favorite up to 10 views.
Favorites are customizable for every user.
Manage Inbox Views
Click into any view, from a favorite or from the All listing, and find the options menu in the top right corner (the 3 vertical dots) to manage it.
Edit
Choose edit to add, remove, or change any of the conditions of the view.
Favorite / Unfavorite
Choose Favorite so that the view appears in the left sidebar or Unfavorite to limit it to appearing in the All listing.
Delete View
Delete the view. This is permanent; there is no option to recover a view after deletion.
Available Conditions
These conditions will be familiar to you if you've worked with our Automatic Workflows in the past, but there are some slight differences in how they work for views.
Custom Field and Customer Property conditions are only available on Plus and Pro plans.
Condition | Operators | Function |
Channel is |
Show conversations from email, phone, and/or chat channels. | |
Is tagged |
Show conversations with the specified tag, that does not have the specified tag, or conversations with no tags. | |
Status is |
Show conversations in Active and/or Pending status, or conversations that are not in Active or Pending status. Note: Views cannot display Closed or Spam status conversations. | |
Email address is |
Show conversations from specific email addresses or domains. | |
Assigned to |
Show conversations assigned to the specified user, not assigned to the specified user, or that are unassigned | |
Subject contains |
Subject contains the exact phrase as entered, or subject does not contain the exact phrase as entered | |
In the last |
The date created is or is not in the last number of days or years specified, is between 2 specified dates, or is before or after a specified date. | |
Waiting less than |
Conversation has been waiting less than specified time or more than specified time for a response from a Help Scout user. | |
Custom field: |
Show conversations matching the custom field settings specified. |