Shared Inbox Conversation States in GOCare Connect

This article provides an explanation of conversation states in shared inboxes within GOCare Connect. It explains how shared inboxes differ from individual inboxes, describes each available conversation state, and outlines best practices for managing conversations collaboratively.

Shared inboxes in GOCare Connect are designed to centralize team conversations from public-facing channels, including support email addresses, SMS numbers, or social platforms. Unlike individual inboxes, where only the assigned user sees the conversation, shared inboxes provide team-wide visibility, making it possible for multiple teammates to triage, assign, and resolve conversations efficiently.

A key feature of shared inboxes is the division between Unassigned and Assigned states, which acts as the primary sorting mechanism for all conversations. These states help teams identify which conversations require attention, who is responsible for follow-up, and where a conversation stands in its lifecycle.

At the top level, the shared inbox is divided into two core views:

• Unassigned — Conversations that have not yet been claimed by any teammate.

• Assigned — Conversations that have been assigned to a specific teammate.

These states replace the Open view found in individual inboxes, focusing instead on the ownership and distribution of work.

Unassigned conversations are new or unclaimed conversations that need to be triaged. These typically arrive when:

• A customer sends a new message to a shared email, SMS number, or social account.

• A reopened conversation (previously archived or snoozed) triggers back into the shared inbox.

• A conversation is manually unassigned by a teammate.

Key characteristics:

• Visible to all teammates with access to the shared inbox.

• Serves as the team’s triage queue — where agents look to pick up new work.

• Conversations can be assigned, snoozed, tagged, commented on, or archived.

• Workflows and automations can route conversations into Unassigned based on conditions.

Best practices:

• Check the Unassigned queue regularly to ensure no customer messages go unnoticed.

• Use assignment rules to automatically route certain conversations to the right teams.

• Use tags to help categorize conversations before assignment.

When a conversation first arrives, it appears in the Unassigned column of the shared inbox. It will remain there until an agent responds.
Once the agent replies, GOCare Connect automatically assigns the conversation to them. The conversation then moves to the Assigned column of the shared inbox and appears in the agent’s personal inbox. At this point, no further action is needed to claim the conversation.

Assigned conversations have been claimed by a teammate and now appear both in the Assigned view of the shared inbox and in the teammate’s individual inbox.

Key characteristics:

• Shows clear ownership and accountability.

• Still visible to all teammates in the shared inbox (unless filtered).

• Supports internal collaboration through comments and tags.

• Can be reassigned to another teammate if needed.

• Can be snoozed, archived, marked as spam, or trashed.

When a conversation is assigned to you, it not only moves to the Assigned section of the shared inbox but also appears in your individual inbox. This ensures you have personal visibility and responsibility for the conversation while maintaining full team transparency in the shared inbox.

Best practices:

• Assign conversations promptly to avoid bottlenecks in the Unassigned queue.

• Reassign conversations if the original assignee is unavailable or if expertise is needed.

• Encourage assignees to communicate progress using comments to keep the team informed.

Beyond Assigned and Unassigned, shared inboxes support additional actions that help manage the full lifecycle of a conversation.

A Snoozed conversation is temporarily removed from the active inbox but scheduled to reopen at a specific time.

• Used when a response is pending a future event, such as a subscriber reply or internal update

• Automatically reopens at the designated snooze time, returning to the Open state

• Helps reduce clutter in the inbox while maintaining accountability

There are two ways to snooze a conversation:

When you're viewing a conversation thread, you'll see a clock icon (⏰) or "Snooze" button in the top toolbar. Clicking this opens the snooze modal, where you can select a predefined time (e.g., "Tomorrow", "Next Week") or set a custom date and time for the conversation to reappear.

From the main inbox view, when hovering over a conversation in the list, you can select “Snooze” directly—without opening the message first.

• Waiting on subscriber information

• Pending an internal system change

• Following up on a scheduled event or callback

ℹ️ Info: Snoozing is particularly helpful for conversations where resolution is expected but not immediate. It allows agents to stay focused without losing track of follow-up.

An Archived conversation is considered complete or no longer requiring agent attention.

• Typically used when the issue is resolved or the subscriber has gone inactive

• Can be archived manually by an agent or automatically via workflow rules

• Does not delete the conversation—history is preserved and searchable

There are two quick ways to archive a conversation in GOCare Connect:

When you’re inside an open conversation, you’ll see an archive icon (usually a box with a downward arrow) in the top action bar. Clicking it immediately archives the conversation, moving it out of the inbox.

In the inbox list view, you can hover over a conversation to access the Archive option without opening the conversation. This is useful for batch clean-up or quickly archiving completed conversations.

• Subscriber issue has been addressed and closed

• Agent sent a final follow-up with no expected reply

• An automation rule was triggered (e.g., "If no response in 72 hours, archive")

💡 Tip: Archiving helps maintain a clean and accurate inbox. Encourage teams to archive when a conversation is fully resolved.

When the assigned agent resolves the issue, they should tag and archive the conversation.
Archiving will automatically unassign the conversation (per rule settings).

Before closing any conversation, ask yourself:

• Am I subscribed? If so, are your Unsubscribe preferences are enabled, otherwise manually unsubscribe.

• Did I archive the conversation?

Ticketing inboxes in GOCare Connect build upon the shared inbox model by introducing ticket statuses that help teams better track the lifecycle of customer requests. When ticketing is enabled, each shared inbox includes three default statuses: Open, Waiting, and Resolved, allowing your team to easily distinguish between conversations that need action, those pending input, and those that are complete.

These statuses appear as tabs across the top of your shared inbox. Depending on your workspace settings, you may see these alongside your Unassigned and Assigned views.

Ticketing statuses don’t replace existing conversation states, they add another organizational layer for teams managing high-volume support. The mappings are as follows:

• Open aligns with Unassigned and Assigned conversations that are active and require a response.

• Waiting corresponds to Snoozed conversations—those temporarily paused until a certain time or condition is met.

• Resolved maps to Archived conversations, where the issue has been handled and the thread is closed.

This relationship ensures that even when ticketing inboxes are enabled, your existing workflows (assignment rules, snooze timers, automation, and analytics) continue to function as expected.

To enable ticket statuses for an existing shared inbox, you’ll need workspace admin permissions. Converting a shared inbox doesn’t change existing conversation history or assignments—it simply layers ticketing functionality on top.

To enable ticketing:

1. Click the gear icon in the GOCare Connect menu.

2. Select Workspace Settings.

3. In the left-hand menu, click Inboxes, then choose the shared inbox you’d like to convert.

4. Open the Ticketing tab.

5. Toggle Enable ticket statuses on.

6. Click Save.

Once enabled, your shared inbox will automatically display the Open, Waiting, and Resolved tabs. Conversations already marked as Snoozed or Archived will automatically appear in Waiting and Resolved, respectively.

When working in a ticketing inbox, agents can update a ticket’s status manually from the status dropdown at the top of a conversation or through bulk actions in the inbox list. Agents can also apply rules or macros to automatically update statuses based on conditions—for example, marking a conversation as Resolved when a certain tag is applied.

💡 Tip: Use ticket statuses to monitor your team’s queue more effectively. For example, reviewing conversations in Waiting status helps ensure that customers awaiting follow-ups aren’t overlooked.

• Define when your team should use Waiting versus Resolved to maintain consistent reporting.

• Review Waiting conversations regularly to ensure timely responses.

• Use analytics tools to track how long tickets remain in each status to identify bottlenecks.

• Keep using Snooze when you need a conversation to reopen automatically after a set time—this continues to function even when ticket statuses are active.

ℹ️ Info: Archiving or moving a conversation does not automatically change its assignment. To ensure conversations return to an Unassigned state when archived or moved, explicit rules must be created in the workspace settings.

While the table above covers the typical conversation states you’ll encounter, it’s also important to understand some less common, but critical, states:

The Spam state filters out irrelevant or malicious conversations.

Key characteristics:

• Moves conversations to the Spam folder to avoid clutter.

• Can apply rules to block future messages from the same sender.

• Spam classification impacts the entire shared inbox (not just the individual agent).

• Manual Spam Marking
  Agents can manually mark a conversation as spam if it was missed by the email provider. This is done by:

  • Clicking the Mark as Spam icon inside a conversation.

  • Blocking the sender, which marks both current and future messages from that sender as spam.

• Restoring from Spam
  If a conversation is mistakenly marked as spam, agents can restore it from the Spam folder to return it to the active inbox.

Best practices:

• Regularly review the Spam folder to ensure no legitimate messages were misclassified.

• Mark unwanted sales or scam messages as Spam to train the system.

• Use automation to tag and handle repetitive spam messages.

The Trash is for conversations that were started in error or are entirely irrelevant to your needs. The GOCare team strongly recommends against using Trash, and instead recommends using the Archive state.

• Removes the conversation from view but retains the message history.

• Can be restored to Open if needed

• Excluded from reporting, analytics, and automation. Use Archive to maintain these functions.

• Use only when the conversation is non-actionable and entirely irrelevant.

• Avoid trashing conversations prematurely—prefer Archiving if the conversation was legitimate but resolved

• Can be permanently deleted (based on admin configuration)

⚠️ Warning: Trashing is a stronger action than archiving. Be cautious not to confuse the two—archived conversations reflect closed support interactions, while trashed conversations indicate total irrelevance