How to set up a shared inbox in Gmail

Most small businesses start the same way: one address like support@ or hello@, and two or three people who need to answer it. Gmail wasn’t built as a team inbox, but there are good ways to share one. Here they are, from simplest to most capable.

Why not just share the password?

It’s the first thing everyone tries, and it works for a week. Then the problems start:

• Security. Everyone knows the password, so 2-Step Verification codes go to one phone, and when someone leaves you have to change it for everyone.
• No accountability. Every reply comes from the same account, so you can’t tell who sent what.
• Collisions. Two people open the same email and both reply, or each assumes the other one did.

Any of the options below is better.

Option 1: Gmail delegation

Delegation lets other people open a mailbox from their own Gmail account, without the password. It’s built into Gmail and costs nothing extra.

How to set it up

1. Sign in to the support@ account and open Settings > See all settings > Accounts.
2. Under Grant access to your account, click Add another account and enter a teammate’s email address.
3. Your teammate accepts the invitation. It can take up to 24 hours before the mailbox shows up for them.
4. They open it from their profile picture menu in Gmail.

If you use Google Workspace, your admin may need to allow delegation first in the Admin console.

Good for

Two or three people who want the quickest setup. Google allows up to 1,000 delegates per account, and says about 40 can use it at the same time with typical use.

Where it breaks

• Every action is shared. If one person reads or archives an email, it’s read or archived for everyone.
• No way to assign an email to a person, leave a private note, or see who’s already answering.
• No reports: you can’t see how long customers wait for a reply.

Option 2: Google Groups Collaborative Inbox

If you have Google Workspace, a Google Group can work as a shared inbox. Mail to the group address lands in a shared list, and members can take conversations, assign them, and mark them done.

How to set it up

1. Go to groups.google.com and create a group with your address, for example support@yourcompany.com.
2. In the group’s settings, turn on Collaborative Inbox and keep conversation history on.
3. Add your teammates as members and give them permission to take and assign conversations.

Good for

Workspace teams that need basic assignment (take a conversation, assign it, mark it complete, duplicate or no action needed) at no extra cost.

Where it breaks

• It lives in the Google Groups site, not in Gmail, and the Gmail phone app doesn’t show it.
• Replies go out from each person’s own address unless you set up extra sending permissions.
• No warning when a teammate is already replying, no internal notes, and no reports on response time.

Option 3: A shared inbox add-on for Gmail

Tools like Hiver or Drag add assignment, notes and statuses on top of Gmail, so your team stays in the Gmail screen they know. They’re a solid middle step. Two things to check before you choose one:

• Price per user. Most charge for every person on the team, so the bill grows with every hire. (See what help desks really cost.)
• It depends on Gmail. If you ever add an Outlook address, a second brand, or a help center, you may need another tool.

Option 4: A help desk connected to your Gmail address

A help desk connects to your existing support@ address. Customers keep writing to the same address and your replies still come from it, but your team works from one shared inbox built for it.

With HallaHelps, that means:

• Assign and follow up: every email becomes a conversation with an owner and a status (open, pending, closed).
• No double replies: you see when a teammate is looking at a conversation (yellow) or typing a reply (red).
• Internal notes under the customer’s email, and saved replies for the questions you answer every day.
• Reports on first reply time, resolution time and customer ratings.
• One price for your company, not per user. See pricing.

Signs you’ve outgrown Gmail alone

• A customer got two different answers from two people.
• Someone asks “did anyone reply to this?” more than once a week.
• Emails sit unanswered over the weekend and nobody notices until Monday.
• You can’t say how long customers wait for a first reply.
• You copy and paste the same five answers from a Google Doc.

If two or more of those sound familiar, it’s time for a real shared inbox. Try HallaHelps free for 14 days: no card needed, and your support@ address stays exactly the same.