How to set up a shared inbox in Gmail
Gmail has no built-in shared inbox, so teams use one of three workarounds: Google Groups Collaborative Inbox, mailbox delegation in Google Workspace, or a shared login. Each shares the mail but none tracks who is replying to what.
People search for a "Gmail shared inbox," a "shared Gmail inbox," a "Gmail shared mailbox," or a "Google Workspace shared inbox" and expect a feature that does not exist under any of those names. Gmail was built for one person, so sharing a support address across a team means picking one of a few workarounds inside Google Workspace, each with a real limitation.
Here is how the three common options actually work, where each falls short, and when a purpose-built shared inbox is the cleaner answer.
Steps
- 1
Option 1: Google Groups Collaborative Inbox
In the Google Admin console, create a group (like support@yourcompany.com), and in the group's settings turn on "Collaborative Inbox." Members can then take, assign, and mark conversations as resolved from groups.google.com. It is the closest Gmail gets to a shared inbox, but the interface is the Groups web app, not Gmail, and it feels dated and clunky for daily support.
- 2
Option 2: Google Workspace mailbox delegation
In Gmail settings under Accounts, "Grant access to your account" lets delegates read and reply to a Google Workspace mailbox from their own Gmail: up to 1,000 delegates on a work or school account (10 on a personal @gmail.com one), with about 40 able to access it at the same time in typical use. Good for one shared address a few people cover, but delegates cannot see who else is in a thread, replies can collide, and there is no assignment or status.
- 3
Option 3: A shared login
The lowest-effort option is a shared email account: one Gmail login the whole team signs into. It works until two people open the same email and both reply, or neither does. There is no ownership, no audit trail, and security is poor because everyone shares one password.
- 4
Know where all three run out of road
None of the Gmail options shows who is handling which message or what is still unanswered. That is fine at a handful of emails a day and painful past it, which is when teams move to a dedicated shared inbox that adds assignment, status, and drafts on top of the same support address.
Frequently asked questions
What is Google Groups Collaborative Inbox?
It is a mode you enable on a Google Group that lets members take, assign, and resolve conversations sent to the group address. It is the nearest thing Gmail offers to a shared inbox, but you work from groups.google.com rather than Gmail, and the experience is basic compared with a purpose-built tool.