Use a group as a Collaborative Inbox

If Google Groups isn't available in your work or school account, ask your administrator to turn on Groups for Business.

If Google Groups isn't available in your work or school account, ask your administrator to turn on Groups for Business.

After a group owner or manager turns on Collaborative Inbox features for a group, members with the correct permissions can use these features to manage conversations with each other.

Before you begin

A group owner or manager must first:

• Create a Collaborative Inbox group or enable Collaborative Inbox features for an existing group. For details, see Make a group a Collaborative Inbox.
• Set the correct permissions for users to take advantage of Collaborative Inbox features. For details, see Set permissions for managing a group.

Assign a conversation to yourself or others

Requires the Who can moderate metadata permission.

You can assign responsibility for a conversation to yourself or another group member. You can also search conversations based on their assignment status.

Take, assign, or unassign conversations

1. Sign in to Google Groups.
2. Click the name of a group.
3. Choose an option. To act on:
   • A single conversation—Click the conversation.
   • Multiple conversations—Point to each conversationcheck the box next to the poster's name.
4. Choose an option:
   • Assign to:
     • Yourself—Click Take .
     • A group member—Click Assign  and:
       1. Enter the assignee email address.
       2. (Optional) Enter a note.
       3. Click Done.
   • Unassign (and, optionally, reassign).
     1. Click Drop .
     2. (Optional) Assign a conversation to a group member, following the steps above.

View conversation assignments

1. Sign in to Google Groups.
2. Click the name of a group.
3. At the top, in the search bar, click the Down arrow .
4. Click Assigned to.
5. Choose an option:
   • Assigned to me
   • Assigned to anyone
   • Not assigned
6. Click Search.

Resolve a conversation

To resolve a conversation, you can mark it as complete, needing no further action, or a duplicate of another conversation. In the conversation list, a resolved conversation displays the appropriate status (complete, no action needed, or duplicate) to the right of the subject.

Marking a conversation as:

• Complete—Requires the Who can moderate metadata permission.
• Needing no further action or a duplicate—Requires the Who can moderate content permission.

Mark a conversation

1. Sign in to Google Groups.
2. Click the name of a group.
3. Choose an option. To resolve:
   • A single conversation—Click the conversation.
   • Multiple conversations—Point to each conversationcheck the box next to the poster's name.
4. At the top, choose an option. If you or someone on your team:
   • Finishes the action items related to a conversation, click Mark as complete .
   • Decides there’s nothing to do about issues raised in a conversation, click No action needed .

     Note: Conversations already assigned to someone remain assigned to them.

   • Starts a conversation without realizing that a similar one already exists:
     1. Click Mark as duplicate .
     2. (Optional) To see the duplicated conversation, click itat the top right, click view conversation.
5. (Optional) To remove a resolved status, repeat the steps for marking a conversation, except click to unmark it, instead.

About duplicates

Marking a conversation as duplicate locks the conversation so that you can’t perform any actions on it. You can mark a conversation as a duplicate of another if:

• They’re in the same group.
• The one you want to mark:
  • Isn’t already a duplicate of a different conversation.
  • Doesn’t have a conversation marked as its duplicate.

Remove resolved conversations from the list

You can delete conversations you resolved. If you do, they disappear permanently and you can’t restore them. Instead of deleting them, you can filter the conversation list to show only conversations in an unresolved (active) state.

1. Sign in to Google Groups.
2. Click the name of a group.
3. At the top, in the search bar, click the Down arrow .
4. Click Resolved statusIs unresolved.
5. Click Search.

Use labels to categorize conversations

Organize your Collaborative Inbox workflows by applying labels to related conversations. Labels let you categorize conversations across assignment and resolution status. For details, see Use labels to categorize group content.