Customers (CRM)

Inbox

Overview

The Inbox is the first pillar of the CRM workspace: the service desk from which every WhatsApp conversation with your customers is handled in one place, instead of moving between staff phones. You open it from CRM → Customer Chats → Inbox, and beside it in the same group sits the Conversation reports tab — and the CRM workspace opens on the Inbox by default. The screen splits into three panes:

1. The conversation list — the queue, down one side. Above it a row carrying the "Search conversations" box and the "New conversation" button, then a tab strip (All, Unread, Open) with the "Filters" and "Sort" buttons alongside. Each row is one conversation with the customer's name and a line of the last message (truncated at 120 characters), and a small WhatsApp badge on their picture to remind you which channel the conversation runs on. Anyone with neither a name nor a number has their row written "No name". The list shows the whole queue: no pagination and no loading more as you scroll.
2. The open thread — in the middle: the status control at the top of the thread, the waiting-time chip (how long the customer has waited), then the message bubbles, then the composer below them. Before you open anything, this pane says "Select a conversation".
3. The context pane — at the side: the contact's details and everything attached to them without leaving the conversation, spread across four tabs: Details, Files, Marketing, Notes.

Sending goes over WhatsApp, so WhatsApp has to be connected — see WhatsApp notifications. And any reply the customer sends you appears straight away: the list refreshes every 8 seconds for as long as the tab is open in front of you, and re-sorts itself whenever a new message arrives, without you refreshing the page by hand.

Organizing conversations

A single queue fills up fast, so you have four tools to tame it:

• The tabs — three of them above the list: All, Unread (carrying a badge with the unread count, which disappears at zero and writes "99+" above ninety-nine), and Open. Assigned to me, Awaiting customer and Closed, meanwhile, have become values inside the filter panel. There is no counter on All and none on Open — the number is for unread alone.
• Filters — a button that opens a panel of conditions, explained in the next section. Its icon carries a number counting the active conditions, so your list is never filtered without you knowing.
• Sort — a button that flips directly between Longest waiting (floating whoever waited longest to the top, steering you towards whatever is about to breach its window) and Most recent (ordering by latest activity, and the default). The current value is written in the button's tooltip, and flipping it by hand detaches the list from any saved view you had applied.
• A status for each conversation, set from the status control at the top of the thread, and there are four:
  • Open — an active conversation that needs following up.
  • Awaiting customer — you replied and are waiting for their answer.
  • Snoozed — it disappears from your queue until a time you choose; setting it opens a date-and-time picker that must be in the future (otherwise you are told: "Pick a time in the future"), and the conversation returns to your queue when that time arrives.
  • Closed — handling is finished. Beside the status control is a "Close conversation" shortcut button, which becomes "Reopen" whenever the conversation is closed. A snoozed conversation also counts as closeable.

Condition filters and saved views

The "Filters" button opens a single panel in which conditions are built card by card. Each card has three parts: Filter type, then Is or Is not, then Choose a value. There are five types:

• Status — the only one that does not accept "Is not".
• Assignee — whose values include Assigned to me and Unassigned.
• Tags — with a "Search tags" box for when the catalog grows.
• Last message channel.
• Last message direction — Inbound or Outbound.

Between every two cards sits an And | Or switch: "And" narrows (every condition together), "Or" widens (whichever one is met). The "Add condition" button disappears once all the types are used up, or while a card is still without a type.

And nothing is applied the moment you choose it: the queue does not move until you press "Apply", and "Clear" empties every condition in one go.

At the bottom of the panel is the "Saved views" section. Press "Save view" and it asks for a "View name" and then "Where would you like to save this view?" with two explicit choices: "Personal (only me)" or "Shared with the team" — and a shared one carries a "Shared" badge. A saved view stores the status, the assignee, the tags (both positive and negative), the channel, the direction, the And/Or mode and the sort order together, so you restore your whole arrangement with one click.

Searching conversations

The "Search conversations" box searches the whole text of the thread, not just the line showing on the row, and internal notes count in the match. The search does not distinguish between the hamza forms of alef, nor between ta marbuta and ha, it ignores diacritics and tatweel, and it accepts Eastern and Western Arabic numerals alike — so you find «أحمد» by typing «احمد».

If it finds nothing it says No results for "…"; and if there are results the current view is hiding, it adds "… more in other views — try switching the view", so you never mistake silence for emptiness. A queue that is empty to begin with says "No conversations yet".

Keeping up with what is unread

Every conversation now has a read state. An unread row is tinted and carries a counter (and "99+" above ninety-nine), and the Unread tab gathers them. The moment you open the thread it is marked read. There is no button on the web to treat everything as read at once: the tab empties as you open its conversations, or as one of you replies to them.

And if you want to come back to one later, use the "⋯" menu (its tooltip is "More actions") at the top of the thread: "Mark as unread" (which confirms with "Marked as unread", and if it stumbles says "Could not mark"). The system then leaves the thread deliberately, so the automatic refresh does not mark it read again on the spot.

Tags

The tag catalog is shared company-wide, but the row you see of it is personal to you: "Pin" what you are working on and "Unpin" what you are done with, up to a maximum of 8 pinned tags (above which: "You can pin at most 8 tags"). Of those, 4 show in the row and the rest sit behind a button — and a selected one shows first and is never truncated, so no filter is ever working while you cannot see it.

You edit a conversation's tags from the head of the thread or from the "Details" tab, and both write into the contact's own tags — one set, not two. Filtering by tag is done from the "Tags" card inside the filter panel.

Starting a new conversation

The "New conversation" button above the list opens a contact picker under the heading "Pick a contact", with a search by name or number (and with no match it says "No matching contacts"). Choose a contact and their thread opens as though you had clicked a row in the list.

Assignment and service status

• Assignment: it lives in the context pane → "Details" → "Assigned to" — a searchable list whose first choice is "Unassigned", then everyone holding the CRM permission who is active. After you choose, "Assigned" (or "Unassigned") appears and the row updates at once with the assignee's picture. And assigning a conversation to a colleague sends them a notification and a message in the HR conversation, so nobody has to walk the queue to discover something is theirs. Whatever has not been assigned yet stays without an owner until one of you picks it up.
• The waiting-time chip (SLA): "SLA" is short for service level, the response time you have agreed to; the chip turns it into the waiting time you see — how long it has been since the customer's message that has not been answered yet. The chip only appears while an inbound message is awaiting a reply ("No reply"), and shows a live counter whose colour changes as the wait grows: calm, then warning, then breach, according to your company's thresholds (by default a warning at 5 minutes and a breach at 15 minutes). Below a minute it is written "under a minute". The moment your reply goes out, the counter stops.

The composer

The composer starts compressed into a single bar, widens when you focus it, and returns to compressed if you leave it empty. Its "Minimize composer" and "Expand composer" buttons set that by hand — and the second opens a large editor for long messages. Enter sends, and Shift+Enter makes a new line. And no empty message goes out: there has to be text, or an attachment, or a recording.

At the head of the composer is a "Send via" switch with two channels to the customer: WhatsApp (the default) and WhatsApp API (the official one, over Meta). There is no third channel here — no email and no SMS — apart from the internal note, which never leaves the system.

Reply tools

The composer is more than a text box:

• Canned replies: a template library the company's team shares. Type / in the composer (the hint "Type / for canned replies" appears) to open the picker, then choose a template to insert its text. With every character you type after the slash the picker filters the templates by shortcut, title or template body (and if nothing is left it says "No matching replies"). And the {{name}} token is replaced by the contact's first name; failing that, by the first word of their full name; failing that, by their number; and otherwise the word "the customer" takes its place — and the replacement covers every occurrence of the token in the template, not the first alone. The templates themselves are edited from WhatsApp auto-replies & templates, not from here.
• Voice messages: the "Record a voice message" button puts a bar in place of the tool row carrying a counter and the "Cancel" and "Send recording" buttons. The recording is the whole message and is never a comment on text, so if there are words in the field you are told: "Clear the message first — a recording is sent on its own". Switching conversations while recording cancels it ("Recording discarded when you switched conversations"), and failing to reach the microphone is announced too ("Could not reach the microphone"). The recording limit is 5 MB, above which: "Recording is too long"; and if saving stumbles you are told: "Could not save the recording — try again". Voice messages arriving from the customer play inside the thread directly.
• Attachments: the "Attach file" button uploads one file of up to 25 MB, shows it above the field before sending, and whatever you type becomes a caption on it. A larger file is refused with "File is too large". Switching conversations drops an attachment you had prepared before sending it.
• Dictation: if it is enabled at your company its button appears in the tool row along with the dictation language, and what you dictate is inserted into the field. The first use asks you to acknowledge how the audio is handled.
• AI assist: if the AI assistant is enabled, an "AI assist" icon appears with four actions: "Draft a reply", "Summarize conversation", "Improve wording", "Translate". Three of them need text in the field first (otherwise they are disabled with the hint "Write something first"). Text the assistant inserts carries an "AI-assisted" line beneath it, and the summary appears in the "Conversation summary" panel — see Duwam AI Assistant.

Send later

The send button is split: the arrow beside it opens "Send options", which holds "Send Later". That opens the "Schedule send" dialog with the line "The message will be sent automatically at the chosen time" beneath it, carrying a quote of your text and three shortcuts — "In 1 hour", "In 3 hours", "Tomorrow 9 AM" — as well as the "Date" and "Time" fields, then the "Schedule" button (and on success: "Message scheduled ✓").

You have to write the message first ("Write the message first"), and set a date and a time together ("Pick a date and time"), and the moment must be more than five seconds in the future ("Choose a time in the future") — with no ceiling on how far off it is.

Pending messages show in a bar above the composer that the whole team sees — so two colleagues never reply twice — and each chip carries its scheduled moment and the first 60 characters of its text, with a ✕ on it whose tooltip is "Cancel schedule" (and on success: "Schedule canceled").

Internal notes

Beside the channel switch is an "Internal note" button that lights up when you turn it on. A note is a jotting for the team about the conversation, shown inside the thread as a distinct block carrying a lock and its writer's name. Inside it you type @ to mention a colleague (the hint "Type @ to mention a teammate" appears) and draw their attention to the conversation — and the names you can mention are the same ones you can assign to: admins and those granted the CRM permission who are on duty. Use it to record internal context: "The customer is upset about the delay" or "Check with accounting before replying".

While note mode is on, the composer changes: the hint becomes "Type @ to mention a teammate", the send button becomes "Add note", and the attach button and the "Send Later" button disappear. The channel switch still names the real channel you will return to — and the moment the note is added the composer returns to it on its own.

Reading the thread

Messages are divided by day separators — "Today", then "Yesterday", then the dates — and if you climb up the history a "Jump to latest" button appears to take you back to the bottom of the thread in one click. A message that failed to go out carries "Not sent" beside its time.

Actions on a single message

Hover over any bubble (or reach it with the keyboard) and a "⋯" appears beside its time, holding three actions:

• "Reply" — puts a quote bar above the field, with a ✕ that cancels it without touching what you have written. The quote rides the customer channels alone: it does not ride an internal note, nor a recording, nor a scheduled message. A quoted bubble with no words (an image with no caption, say) is written "Attachment". And if the original message disappears you are told "The quoted message no longer exists — quote removed" while your text stays as it is.
• "Star message" (or "Unstar") — adds the message to your personal archive of starred messages, with a limit of 500 messages, beyond which the server refuses the extra rather than silently deleting the oldest.
• "Copy text" — and if the bubble is audio or an attachment with no words it says "No text to copy" instead of claiming a copy that never happened.

A message that was not sent keeps its menu so you can rescue its text, and an internal note has no menu at all — so it is neither quoted nor starred.

Starring conversations

From the "⋯" menu at the top of the thread choose "Star conversation" to flag it ("Conversation starred"), or "Remove star" to lift it ("Star removed"), and starring stretches to 500 conversations. In the same menu are "Open record" (which takes you to the contact's full file) and "Copy phone number" — and the last of these is absent entirely if the contact has no number.

Message source badges

Every outbound bubble that is not an ordinary human reply carries a small badge naming its source, so it is never confused with a real colleague's reply: "Auto-reply", "Campaign", "Bulk send", "Automation", "Survey", and "From phone" for a message sent from the linked phone itself. And if the message went over "WhatsApp API" it appears under the channel's name. An ordinary reply and an ordinary inbound message, meanwhile, carry no badge on purpose.

The context pane

At the edge of the screen is a vertical icon strip with four tabs — "Details", "Files", "Marketing", "Notes" — and beneath it "Collapse panel" for when you need room for the thread, then "Expand panel" to bring it back.

In "Details" are the customer's picture, name, tags, "Assigned to" and the contact fields, editable in place with a save bar, and a box for searching the fields when they grow numerous. And if the customer has an earlier satisfaction rating it appears as a "Last rating" chip.

And if Work orders are enabled, a button appears beneath the inbound bubble that opens the work-order form filled in from the message's text and picture for review — nothing is sent from there until you have reviewed it. And a message that has become a work order carries its number as a link, with the tooltip "Registered — open to review or add another shop".

FAQ

Q: Why can't I send a message? A: First make sure WhatsApp is connected — see WhatsApp notifications. And if you are on the WhatsApp API channel, free text only arrives within the 24-hour window from the customer's last message; after that the composer box disappears and only approved templates are sent.

Q: What is the difference between the tabs and the filter panel? A: The tabs are three shortcuts to what you need most (All, Unread, Open). Everything else — status, assignee, tags, channel and direction, negating them with "Is not", and joining them with "And" or "Or" — is in the filter panel.

Q: I set some conditions and nothing changed. A: The conditions are deferred until you press "Apply". And to empty them all in one go, press "Clear".

Q: Why is no tab showing as active? A: Because you are in "Or" mode: the view is then one of several possibilities rather than a description of what is on show. Read the number on the filter button to know how many conditions are working.

Q: My colleague opened the conversation and it left "Unread" for me — why? A: The read state is shared across the team on purpose, and any colleague's reply is handling for everyone. If you want to keep it for yourself, choose "Mark as unread" from the "⋯" at the top of the thread.

Q: How do I empty the "Unread" tab in one go? A: There is no button for that on the web. A conversation leaves the tab when you open it, or when any colleague replies to the customer — because the read state is shared, and their reply counts as handling for everyone.

Q: Does the box search inside the open conversation? A: No. The search combs the text of the conversations to point you at the conversation itself, then opens it at its most recent message — there is no jumping to the matching message inside the thread.

Q: What does the changing colour on the waiting-time chip mean? A: It is the service level (SLA) indicator: the longer the customer waits, the colour moves from calm to warning to breach, according to your company's thresholds. The counter stops the moment your reply goes out, and freezes outside business hours.

Q: I snoozed a conversation — when does it come back? A: It returns to your queue when the time you chose arrives. That is why the time has to be in the future.

Q: Does the customer see my internal notes or my mention of a colleague? A: No. An internal note and an @ mention stay between your team and never reach the customer, and so does a recording inside a note.

Q: My colleague sent a reply from their phone — does it show here? A: Yes, and it carries a "From phone" badge. Replies in and out appear in the thread and the list re-sorts every few seconds for as long as the tab is in front of you — with no page refresh.

Q: Where do I find my starred messages? A: Starring is saved for you and stays (with a limit of 500 messages), but there is no screen on the web that gathers starred messages — the mark shows only in the message's own menu.

Q: I cancelled my colleague's scheduled message and it wasn't cancelled. A: The bar shows all the team's scheduled messages so replies are not duplicated, but only whoever scheduled one can cancel it.

Q: Why don't some customers show in "New conversation"? A: The picker shows up to 200 contacts and hides every contact without a phone number. Add the number from Contacts & companies and try again.

Q: How do I get to the right canned reply quickly? A: Type / then part of the template's shortcut, its title or its body, and the picker filters the list in front of you until only what you want is left.

Q: Where do I find the customer's details and files? A: In the context pane beside the thread (tabs: Details, Files, Marketing, Notes), and from there — or from "⋯" → "Open record" — you move to their full file in Contacts & companies.

Quick reference

Related articles

• CRM overview — the workspace the Inbox lives in
• Contacts & companies — the customer's full file behind every conversation
• Customer reports — first-response time, service level and customer satisfaction
• WhatsApp notifications — the WhatsApp link that sending goes over
• WhatsApp auto-replies & templates — editing the canned replies and the approved templates
• Campaigns & sequences — sending to an audience instead of one conversation
• Work orders — turning a customer's message into a recorded request