TTom Reedtom@loopwell.example16:38
Hi team,
Can we invite everyone into the same workspace during the trial?
Who is handling what
Know who is handling each email in a shared inbox
Give each email one owner, and show that owner in the inbox. In Inbox Works, the Hand off Add-on gives an email to one teammate, and each row shows who has it.
How it works
With Hand off added, each email’s header has its owner. Choose a teammate by hand; Inbox Works never picks one.
The row shows Kei’s mark, so the whole team sees who has it.
The owner stays the same when someone replies, Kei or anyone else.
Why it happens
- Nothing shows who is responsible.1
Everyone sees every email in a shared mailbox, and nothing marks who has taken one on.
- A claim in chat is forgotten.2
Someone says “got it” in a team chat. A week later, nobody can find who said it.
- Someone is away.3
Their customers keep writing, and nobody else knows those emails are now theirs to answer.
What you can do with your current tools
| What happens | |
|---|---|
| A Google Group’s collaborative inbox4 | Assign a conversation, or take it, in the Groups page. How to assign conversations |
| Outlook categories5 | Give each person a category and mark emails with it. Depending on your setup, categories may not show the same on every computer. |
| A shared list of who has what | It works until someone forgets to update it. |
| Inbox Works | Each row shows the email’s owner, and the owner stays the same when someone else replies. |
Limits and sources
Limits
- Owners come with the Hand off Add-on. Without it, Inbox Works shows who is replying, but not who is responsible for each email.
- An owner is chosen by hand. Inbox Works never picks one.
- When someone is away, give an absent teammate’s open emails to the person covering, then give them back when the teammate returns.
- Google Workspace, in early access by approval: forward your shared address to Inbox Works, and replies go out from your own Google account. Microsoft 365, in early access by approval: sign in once to connect your shared address, and replies go out from it.
Sources
- Nothing shows who is responsible. r/sysadmin · r/smallbusiness
- A claim in chat is forgotten. r/smallbusiness · Hacker News
- Someone is away. r/msp · Hacker News
- A Google Group’s collaborative inbox. Google Workspace help
- Outlook categories. Microsoft Q&A
Summaries of the linked threads and help pages, read 12 and 13 October 2026.
Related Add-on
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Hand off
Assign an email to a teammate
Give an email to a teammate, or take one yourself. It stays with that person, even when someone else replies.
Questions
Do we need the Hand off Add-on?
To give emails to people, yes. Without it, the list still shows who is replying while they write.
Can we use it with our own email now?
On Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, yes, by approval: early access is open, so ask for it and we write when your team can start. The demo, with sample email, is open now.
Hand it off.
The demo opens this scenario with a sample team and points to each step.