WhatsApp Business API, Shared Inbox

One shared inbox where your whole team answers WhatsApp, without stepping on each other

TeamInbox is a shared, collaborative inbox built for teams that outgrew a single phone. A centralized, multi-user WhatsApp inbox where support, sales, and operations all work from the same place. Assign chats, leave internal notes, and see who is already replying — so a joint inbox never turns into two people answering the same customer.

  • Real-time collision detection
  • Internal notes & mentions
  • WhatsApp delegation & routing
Assigned to Priya Live
MK
Customer

Hi, has my order #4821 shipped yet?

🔒Internal note · Rahul can you confirm the courier status? Customer messaged twice today.
Priya is typing… others see this in real time
Priya · Replying

It's out for delivery, arriving today by 6 PM. I'll share the tracking link now.

PR
Assigned Orders Priority SLA 2h
One thread, one owner, full context, no duplicate replies.
1 inbox
For your entire team
Zero
Duplicate replies
Seconds
To assign a conversation
100+
Businesses onboarded
The basics

What is a shared inbox and how does it work?

A shared inbox is a single, centralized inbox tool that lets several people read and reply to the same set of conversations from their own logins, instead of passing one phone around or forwarding chats. With a shared WhatsApp management setup, every message that lands on your business number appears in one team WhatsApp inbox, and each teammate can pick up, reply, and hand off without anyone losing the thread.

Behind the scenes, a collaborative inbox adds the coordination a plain group chat can't: assignee status shows whether a conversation is unassigned or owned by someone, collision detection shows real-time presence so two agents never answer the same person, and internal notes with mentions let the team talk about a customer without the customer seeing it. Because TeamInbox runs on the official WhatsApp Business API, a multi-user WhatsApp inbox stays compliant while still feeling as simple as a normal chat.

Shared, not forwarded

Every reply from your team goes out from the same business number, so customers see one consistent identity, not a different personal WhatsApp each time.

Everyone sees the same context

Full history, tags, and internal notes travel with the conversation, so whoever picks it up next in the group inbox software already knows what happened.

Ownership is always clear

Assignee status marks each chat as unassigned or assigned, so nothing sits unclaimed and nothing gets answered twice.

Setup Flow

How to set up a shared team inbox

Four steps take you from a single, overloaded number to a collaborative inbox your whole team works from, alongside the email you already run in Google Workspace and Outlook.

  1. Connect your channels

    Link your WhatsApp Business number and, if you like, your Google Workspace and Outlook mailboxes, so WhatsApp, email, and more sit together in one omnichannel inbox.

  2. Invite your team

    Add teammates as multi-user seats with roles and permissions, turning a single WhatsApp login into a secure, multi-user WhatsApp inbox with an audit log of who did what.

  3. Set routing and rules

    Create automated WhatsApp routing and rules that tag, triage, and assign incoming chats to the right person or team the moment they arrive.

  4. Track SLAs and reply

    Turn on SLA tracking and management, then let the team reply with canned responses and shared drafts while analytics quietly measure response time and volume. Built To Collaborate

Built To Collaborate

Everything a team needs
to run one inbox together

A shared inbox is only useful if the team never trips over each other. These are the features that make a multi-user WhatsApp inbox feel effortless.

Collision detection

Real-time presence shows when a teammate is already viewing or typing in a conversation, so two people never send duplicate replies to the same customer.

Internal notes & mentions

Discuss a customer privately inside the thread and mention a teammate to pull them in, without the customer ever seeing the conversation behind the reply.

Tagging & triage

Label chats by topic, priority, or stage, then filter the whole inbox to whatever needs attention first, from sales leads to support escalations.

Automated routing & rules

Route incoming messages to the right owner or team automatically, with rules based on keywords, tags, business hours, or the assignee's current load.

SLA tracking & management

Set response and resolution targets, watch a live countdown on every open chat, and get alerts before an SLA is about to be missed.

Analytics & performance reports

See response times, conversation volume, resolution rates, and per-agent workload, so you can staff and coach a team WhatsApp inbox with real numbers.

Shared Inbox Versus The Workarounds

What's the difference between Google Groups and a shared inbox tool?

Teams usually start with a Google Group, a shared login, or a heavy helpdesk. Each falls short for WhatsApp. A purpose-built shared inbox sits in the sweet spot: collaborative like a group, structured like a ticketing system, but light enough to actually use every day.

Consideration
Google Group / shared login
Shared Inbox (TeamInbox)
Who can reply Everyone, no ownership Assigned owner, clear per chat
Duplicate replies Common, no visibility Prevented by collision detection
Private team discussion Separate chat, lost context Internal notes & mentions in-thread
Routing & triage Manual forwarding Automated routing & rules
Accountability No audit trail Audit logs & assignee history
Reporting None Full analytics & SLA tracking
Who Runs A Shared Inbox

One inbox, built for the teams that
live in it

Support Teams

Small business customer support

The best shared inbox software for small business customer support: manage a joint customer support WhatsApp without duplicate replies, and scale support without buying a heavy helpdesk.

Sales Teams

Sales leads & inquiries

A collaborative inbox for managing sales leads and inquiries, with CRM integration for operations teams so every lead is assigned, tagged, and followed up before it goes cold.

Remote Teams

Distributed & remote teams

A shared inbox solution for remote distributed teams, with a secure shared WhatsApp manager and audit logs, so people in different timezones hand off cleanly and nothing slips.

Shared inbox software pricing and plans

Shared inbox pricing based on your plan, not per headache

Every TeamInbox plan is one flat monthly price with agent seats included, so adding a teammate doesn't change your bill until you outgrow the plan. Pick a plan by how many agents, teams and WhatsApp numbers share the inbox.

Every plan: mobile app inbox, quick replies, labels and notes

Best for one person

Solo

Answer every WhatsApp chat yourself from desktop or phone, with your notes and labels in one place.

₹1,299/month

Billed monthly

1Agent seat
—Teams
1WhatsApp number
1,000Contacts
  • Desktop & mobile app inbox
  • Quick replies & auto-replies
  • Chat & contact labels, contact notes
  • Business hours rules
  • Website chat widget in the same inbox
Start with Solo
Best for small teams

Basic

Share one inbox across a small team and hand each chat to the person who should answer it.

₹2,499/month

Billed monthly

3Agent seats
2Teams
2WhatsApp numbers
5,000Contacts

Everything in Solo, plus

  • Assign chats to an agent or a team
  • Dedicated number per agent or team
  • Outbound webhooks
  • Blue tick application help
Start with Basic
Best for large support teams

Enterprise

Run one inbox across many teams and numbers, with an account manager who knows your setup.

₹14,999/month

Billed monthly

50Agent seats
15Teams
5WhatsApp numbers
1,00,000Contacts

Everything in Growth, plus

  • Dedicated account manager
  • 25 custom contact fields
  • 20,000 automation runs / month
  • 50 events for workflow triggers
Talk to sales
Prices exclude GST. Meta conversation charges are paid at Meta's rates, with no markup. Compare all plan features

Frequently Asked Questions

Shared inbox, common questions

A shared inbox is a single mailbox that multiple team members can read and reply to from their own accounts. Instead of forwarding messages or sharing one login, everyone works from the same conversations, with assignment, internal notes, and presence indicators keeping the team coordinated so nothing is missed or answered twice.

Collision detection is what prevents duplicate replies. It shows real-time presence, so when one teammate opens or starts typing in a conversation, everyone else sees it instantly. Combined with clear assignee status, only one person owns a chat at a time, which removes the double-reply problem entirely.

Collision detection is a real-time presence feature that flags when someone is already viewing or replying to a conversation. It's the difference between a plain group chat and a true shared inbox: it stops two agents from independently answering the same customer with conflicting messages.

Yes. On the official WhatsApp Business API, a multi-user WhatsApp inbox lets your whole team reply from one business number, each with their own login. Customers only ever see the single business identity, while internally each reply is attributed to the person who sent it.

It depends on your team. A shared inbox keeps conversations feeling like real chat while still adding assignment, tags, and SLAs, so it's faster and lighter than a full ticketing helpdesk. Many small and mid-size teams get everything they need from a shared inbox and can scale support without buying heavy ticketing software.

A Google Group distributes messages to everyone but has no ownership, no presence, and no reporting, so replies collide and accountability is unclear. A shared inbox tool adds assignee status, collision detection, internal notes, routing, and analytics, turning a distribution list into a coordinated workspace.

Connect your Google Workspace mailbox to TeamInbox, invite your teammates as users, and set routing rules for how incoming messages are assigned. From there, email and WhatsApp live in the same shared inbox, so a team that already runs on Google Workspace and Outlook can collaborate on both channels in one place.

Pricing is per team member, with tiers based on how many people share the inbox and how much automation you use. TeamInbox is priced to start small and scale, so startups pay for a few seats and larger operations teams add users and enterprise controls as they grow. Start with a free trial before you commit.

If you handle a lot of WhatsApp, look for a shared inbox built natively on the WhatsApp Business API rather than bolted on. TeamInbox offers collision detection, assignment, routing, SLAs, and analytics as a focused shared WhatsApp management solution, which makes it a practical alternative when Front or Help Scout feel too general or too expensive for your team.