How to set up a shared inbox in Gmail, three ways, and when you do not need one

The three methods side by side

Method 1: delegate the support mailbox

Delegation gives other people access to one Gmail account without sharing its password. Google describes a delegate as “someone who can read, send, and delete emails in your account for you”. It works when the support address is its own Google Account, for example a support@ user in Google Workspace; Google does not let you add delegates to an alias.

Steps

1. Sign in as the support account. On a computer, open Gmail signed in to the account that receives support mail. Delegates cannot be added from the Gmail app, and Google asks you to verify your identity first.
2. Open Accounts and Import. Click Settings, then See all settings, then the Accounts and Import tab (or Accounts, depending on the account).
3. Add the delegate. In the "Grant access to your account" section, click Add another account, enter the email address of the person who will answer, then click Next Step and Send email to grant access.
4. Have them accept. The delegate receives an invitation email and has a week to click its confirmation link before it expires. Access can take up to 24 hours to start working.
5. Open the support inbox. The delegate clicks their profile picture in Gmail and chooses the account marked "Delegated". The support inbox opens in a new tab.

In Google Workspace, an admin has to allow it first

In the Google Admin console, under Apps, Google Workspace, Gmail, User settings, Mail delegation, the admin ticks “Let users delegate access to their mailbox to other users in the domain”. The same screen sets whether mail sent by a delegate shows the account owner and the delegate, or the account owner only, and whether a whole Google Group can be made a delegate. Delegates must belong to the same organisation, and the change can take up to 24 hours.

What it does well, and where it breaks

• Good: nothing to buy or install, and everyone works in the Gmail they already know. Each person keeps their own login.
• The limits: up to 10 delegates on a personal @gmail.com account and up to 1,000 on a work or school account, with Google noting that 40 can access the account at the same time under typical use.
• What is missing: delegation shares access, not responsibility. Nothing in it assigns a conversation to a person, so two people answering the same customer is a matter of time. Delegates also lose Smart Compose, Smart Reply, Gemini, and spelling and grammar checks inside the delegated account, and cannot chat or reach the Google Account settings.

Method 2: use a Google Group as a Collaborative Inbox

A Google Group has its own email address, and with the Collaborative Inbox feature switched on, its conversations become a shared queue that members can claim and close. Google documents it for work and school accounts; if Groups is not available in yours, the admin has to turn on Groups for Business.

Steps

1. Create the group. In Google Groups, create a group whose email address is the support address customers write to, and add the people who will answer as members.
2. Turn on conversation history. Collaborative Inbox features need the group to keep its conversation history, so switch that on first.
3. Switch on Collaborative Inbox. Open the group, click Group settings, and under "Enable additional Google Groups features" select Collaborative Inbox.
4. Give members the right permissions. "Who can moderate metadata" lets members take, assign and mark conversations complete. "Who can post as group" lets them reply from the group's address rather than their own.
5. Let customers write in. For people outside your organisation to email the group, "Who can post" has to include everyone on the web, which depends on how your admin has set up group sharing.

Working the queue

Members with the right permission can take a conversation, assign it to someone else (the assignee gets an automated email), and mark it complete, no action needed or a duplicate. The search bar filters by assignee (assigned to me, to anyone, or not assigned) and by resolved status, so “Is unresolved” becomes the team’s working list.

What it does well, and where it breaks

• Good: nothing to buy, and real assignment with a resolved status, which delegation does not have.
• Two places to work: every take, assign and resolve step in Google’s instructions starts with signing in to Google Groups, not Gmail.
• Setup is permissions: who can post, who can moderate metadata, who can post as the group. Get one wrong and customers cannot write in, or replies go out from a member’s own address.
• “Complete” is a box someone ticks. The three resolved states are complete, no action needed and duplicate. None of them records whether the customer has actually been told.

Method 3: a shared-inbox tool

When support is a daily job for several people, a dedicated tool adds what Gmail and Groups leave to discipline. Four of the tools in our pricing data are shared inboxes rather than ticket queues, and they differ most in where your mail ends up.

• Hiver is the one that stays inside Gmail. It works inside Gmail through a Chrome extension, or in its own web app. Growth is $25 a user with a minimum of 2, so a year starts at $600. Trial: 7 days of Elite, no card needed. No free plan.
• Missive is the cheapest. A shared inbox and team chat in one app, built around drafting replies collaboratively. Starter caps you at 5 users and leaves out rules, integrations and API access, which is most of what people upgrade for.
• Help Scout has the only free plan of the four. A shared inbox for support teams who want their replies to look like ordinary email rather than tickets. It wants the support address forwarded into its own inbox.
• Front is built for heavy collaboration. A collaborative inbox where a team drafts, comments on and assigns replies together in real time. Starter caps the team at 10 seats and one channel type, and leaves out macros, advanced analytics and SSO. The plan most reviews describe is $65 per seat.

If it comes down to the last two, Help Scout vs Front sets every plan side by side, and the best shared inbox for a small business list covers the wider field.

The method not to use: sharing the password

Handing out the support account’s password is the most common shared inbox of all, and Google’s own help pages note the risk: when several people sign in to one account from different places, Gmail may temporarily lock it down. It also leaves no record of who sent what, and every departure means a password change. Delegation exists so that you never have to do it.

If the support team is one person

Every method above answers one question: how do several people work one inbox without tripping over each other. If you are the only person answering, there is nobody to delegate to, no conversation to assign and nobody to collide with. A shared inbox solves a problem you do not have.

The problem one person does have is quieter. A customer reports a bug, you archive the thread to go and fix it, the fix ships, and nothing in Gmail says that the person who reported it never heard back. The real question is who is still owed a reply, and it is the subject of how to never forget to reply to a customer. Google’s own Collaborative Inbox shows how easy it is to miss: its resolved states say whether the work is complete, and nothing says whether the customer knows.

That is Moorline’s whole job. It is a native Mac app that reads your Gmail or Google Workspace mailbox directly, replies from your own address, and keeps each customer on a list until the work is handled and they have been told. No seats, no assignment and no shared inbox, on purpose. Gmail keeps working exactly as it does now, and if you are wondering whether you need anything at all yet, using Gmail for customer support is an honest place to start.

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