Google Groups collaborative inbox setup
A Google Groups Collaborative Inbox is a Google Group with assignment and resolve status switched on, so members can take, assign, and close the conversations sent to the group address from groups.google.com.
Two different things get called a shared inbox in Google, and conflating them is why setup stalls. A Google Workspace shared mailbox is a mailbox several people open and read, in Gmail, alongside their own. A Collaborative Inbox is not a mailbox at all: it is a Google Group with an extra mode turned on that adds assignment and a resolved state, and you work it from the Groups web app rather than from Gmail.
If what you want is one mailbox everybody opens in Gmail, the shared inbox in Gmail guide below covers that instead. If you want assignment and status on a group address, keep reading, and note that the mode ships off. A new group has no Assign menu until somebody turns conversation history on and then flips one radio button, and that pair of steps is what almost everyone is missing.
Steps
- 1
Create the group
At groups.google.com, select "Create group," then give it a name, the address customers will write to ([email protected]), and a description. A Google Workspace admin can create the same group from the Admin console under Directory, Groups, but the Collaborative Inbox setting itself only exists in the Groups web app, so you will end up back here either way. Your admin may restrict who is allowed to create groups, in which case ask for the group to be created and for yourself to be made an owner or manager of it.
- 2
Set who can post and who can read
During creation, the privacy section asks who can view conversations, who can post, and who can view members. For a support address, "Who can post" has to include "Anyone on the web," or mail from a customer who is not a member gets rejected or held for moderation, which looks exactly like the address being broken. Keep "Who can view conversations" restricted to group members, otherwise customer mail is readable outside the team. You can change all of it later under Group settings.
- 3
Turn on conversation history first
Google is explicit that you have to turn on conversation history to enable Collaborative Inbox features, so do this one before the next step or the next step will not take. Open the group at groups.google.com, go to Group settings, and switch conversation history on. It is also what keeps the thread of a customer conversation visible to the whole group rather than only to whoever received the mail.
- 4
Turn on Collaborative Inbox, which is off by default
Open the group at groups.google.com, go to Group settings, and in the General section set "Enable additional Google Groups features" to "Collaborative Inbox." A new group ships with the feature off, and that is why a group looks like a plain mailing list with no way to take or assign anything. Save, then reload the group. The conversation view now carries assignment and resolution actions.
- 5
Add members and give them permission to act
In Group settings, open Members and add everyone who answers support, then check their role. Assigning and resolving are moderation abilities, not plain membership: in the group permissions under Posting policies, "Who can moderate metadata" has to include the role your team holds, because that is the permission that covers taking, assigning, and completing conversations. "Who can moderate content" is a different setting, covering approving, blocking, and deleting messages. If your agents are ordinary Members and that permission is limited to managers, either add Members to the permission or raise the people who need it to Manager. This is the second most common reason the buttons are not there.
- 6
Assign and resolve a conversation
Open the group at groups.google.com and select a conversation. The actions are "Assign to me," assigning to another member, and marking the conversation complete, duplicate, or no action needed. The filters down the side let you list unassigned conversations, the ones assigned to you, and everything still open, which is the closest Google gets to a support queue. Replies you send go out from the group address, not from the individual who wrote them.
- 7
Know where it runs out
There are no shared drafts, so two members can still write two different answers to the same customer, and only assignment discipline prevents it. Reporting is limited to what you can count by eye. Everything happens in the Groups web app, an interface nobody keeps open all day, so the queue only gets worked when somebody remembers to go look. It is a reasonable free step up from a distribution list, and thin as a support desk once volume is steady.
Frequently asked questions
Is Google Groups collaborative inbox free?
Yes. It is a setting on a group rather than a paid add-on, so it costs nothing beyond the Google Workspace subscription you already have, and consumer Google Groups can turn it on too. There is no per-agent charge and no license for the group address itself. The real cost is the workflow ceiling: no shared drafts, no reporting worth the name, and a separate web app your team has to remember to open.
Why can I not see the Collaborative Inbox setting?
Usually one of three reasons. You are not an owner or manager of the group, so Group settings is read-only for you. Your Google Workspace admin has Groups for Business switched off, which removes these settings for domain groups entirely. Or you are looking in the Google Admin console instead of the Groups web app: the "Enable additional Google Groups features" choice lives at groups.google.com under Group settings, not in the Admin console group page.