Replies arrive on every channel at once — an email answer, a text back, a voicemail, a missed call. The Inbox page pulls them into one screen so nothing sits unanswered because you were looking at the wrong tab.
The layout
Three panes, left to right:
- Left — the conversation list. Lane filters across the top, then one row per conversation with the contact's name and a one-line preview.
- Middle — the thread. The full back-and-forth as chat bubbles (email and SMS both), with voicemails folded in as playable cards. A reply box sits at the bottom.
- Right — the contact panel. Read-only: stage, campaigns, deals, phone, email. Open full card jumps to the editable contact record.
On a phone the panes stack — tap a conversation to open the thread, and a back arrow returns you to the list.
The lanes
- Open — conversations where they spoke last. This is your to-do list. Replying closes the thread automatically; a new inbound message re-opens it.
- All — every conversation in the window, answered or not, with a green dot marking the still-open ones. Use it to find a thread you already handled.
- 🚩 Attention — contacts the system flagged red: an opt-out request, a complaint, a specific deal, or a call-back ask. Voicemails and missed calls show up here even though they have no message thread.
- ✍️ Drafts — AI-written replies waiting on your approval (paid plans). Same approve/skip actions as the topbar Drafts button, just in context with the thread above them.
- ❓ Unknown — texts from numbers that match no contact. See below.
- 💤 Snoozed — threads you deferred. Only appears when you have some.
Lanes show live counts, and the left-nav Inbox badge sums the ones that need you.
Replying
Type in the box at the bottom of the thread and send — it goes out on the same channel the lead used, from the right mailbox or number, with all the usual guardrails applied (opt-out checks, texting consent, no sending from a disconnected mailbox).
If the contact has more than one number or you have more than one mailbox, a From picker appears so you can choose which one it goes out from. Sending here does not enroll anyone in a campaign or schedule follow-ups — it is a one-off human reply.
Pictures work both ways on text threads. When a lead texts you a photo (the property, the deed, a handwritten note), it appears right in the thread as an image you can click to open full size — this works on every text composer in the app, not just the Inbox. To send one back, click the 📷 button beside the message box on the SMS channel: JPEG, PNG, GIF, or WebP, up to 3 pictures of 5MB each per text. Picture messaging (MMS) needs a connected Telnyx or Twilio number — Quo lines and the Messages-app handoff are text-only here — and carriers bill MMS at a higher per-message rate than plain SMS on your own provider account.
Texts from numbers you don't know
An inbound text from a number with no matching contact used to vanish. Now it lands in the ❓ Unknown lane, where you can:
- Add to CRM — creates a contact with that number attached, so every future text from them threads normally.
- Link to an existing contact — for when a lead texts you from their cell instead of the number you had. The past texts get replayed onto that contact's timeline, keeping the history intact.
- Dismiss — for spam. (To stop them entirely, see Block spam callers & texters.)
Marking handled & snoozing
- ✓ Done hides the thread from Open. A new inbound message always brings it back.
- 💤 Snooze hides it until a date you pick, then it re-opens on its own. Good for "circle back in two weeks."
- Snoozing defers — it does not clear a red attention flag. Opt-out flags in particular are never cleared by handling a thread, because they are a compliance record.
- Bulk cleanup: the footer can mark everything older than 7 days as handled in one click.
A workable daily rhythm
- Open the 🚩 Attention lane first — those are the ones with money or legal risk attached.
- Clear ✍️ Drafts — read each AI reply, approve the good ones, rewrite the rest.
- Work Open top to bottom until it's empty.
- Sweep ❓ Unknown — add real people, dismiss spam.
What's next
To decide what the AI should answer on its own: When AI replies vs when you should take over. To turn a reply into follow-up work automatically: Automations.