An inbox is one channel plus everything that governs it: who works in it, when you are open, what a first-time customer is told, and whether satisfaction is asked for. The channel is the connection to the outside world; the inbox is the set of decisions you make about it.
This matters because most of the settings people look for in account settings are not there. They are per inbox. Two WhatsApp numbers can keep different hours, different greetings and different staff.
The channels you can connect
Nine are always offered: Website (a live-chat widget), WhatsApp, Email, SMS (through Twilio or Bandwidth), Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, Line and API for your own application. TikTok appears only where it has been configured on the installation, and Voice and WhatsApp calling depend on being switched on for your account. Connecting the channel itself is covered in Connect your first channel.
What you need first
An administrator account, and a connected channel. An inbox cannot exist without one.
The settings each inbox carries
Open Settings → Inboxes, pick the inbox, and work through its tabs.
| Tab | What it decides |
|---|---|
| Settings | name, logo, greeting message, and channel-specific options |
| Collaborators | which agents work here, and whether auto-assignment is on |
| Business Hours | your timezone, your weekly schedule, and the reply sent when you are closed |
| CSAT | whether a satisfaction survey is sent when a conversation is resolved |
Other tabs appear only where they apply: Pre Chat Form for a website widget, Configuration for channels that hold credentials, Bot Configuration where agent bots are enabled, Account Health for WhatsApp and Twilio, and Voice or Calls where calling is switched on.
Business hours
Business hours are off by default, and a new inbox is created on UTC time. The default schedule is Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:00, with Saturday and Sunday closed — which is wrong for most of the Gulf, where the working week usually runs Sunday to Thursday. Set the timezone and the days before you switch the feature on.
When business hours are on and you are currently closed, an incoming message gets your unavailable message. It is sent at most once a day in any one conversation, and it is not sent if an agent sent a public reply in the last five minutes, so a conversation that is still live at closing time is not interrupted.
Business hours drive that one automatic reply and the hours shown on a website widget. They are not available anywhere else. There is no business-hours or time-of-day condition in automation rules, so out-of-hours routing cannot be built.
The greeting
The greeting is also off by default. When it is on, it is sent once — on the contact's first message in a conversation — and never on a conversation created by a campaign. Out of hours you get the unavailable message instead of the greeting, not both.
A worked example
A clinic in Kuwait runs one WhatsApp inbox. It sets the timezone to Asia/Kuwait, opens Sunday to Thursday 08:00 to 20:00, and closes Friday and Saturday. The unavailable message says the clinic is closed and will answer the next working morning. The greeting is left off: the unavailable message already covers the case that matters, and a greeting on every first message would only add noise during opening hours.
Who can do this
Administrators only. Agents cannot open inbox settings. The permission list behind a custom role has no entry for inboxes or channels, so this cannot be delegated — see Roles and permissions.
Limits
- A new inbox is on UTC until you change it, and business hours are evaluated in the inbox's timezone.
- Closing time must be later than opening time on the same day. Hours that run past midnight cannot be expressed.
- "All day" means 00:00 to 23:59, not a true 24 hours.
- The unavailable message goes out on every channel, not only the website widget, even though its help text mentions live chat.
- Greeting and unavailable messages are capped at 10,000 characters each.
- CSAT on WhatsApp needs a template approved by Meta before it can be sent.
- Auto-assignment is on for a new inbox and only considers agents who are online.
Related
If it does not work
The unavailable message is sent at the wrong time. The inbox timezone is still UTC, or the schedule follows a Monday-to-Friday week it should not.
Nobody is getting the unavailable message. Check that business hours are switched on, that today is marked closed, and that the message field is not empty. All three are required.
The greeting never arrives. It is sent only on the contact's first message in a conversation. On an existing conversation, or out of hours, it does not send.
An agent cannot see the inbox's conversations. They are not a collaborator. Add them on the Collaborators tab.