The inbox: direct messages
Answer client conversations in the inbox, start a new one, send one message to all clients, write a personal email, and set who can write and how you are notified.
The inbox is the one place where you talk to clients. When you finish this article you will know how to answer a conversation, start one, message everyone at once, write a personal email, and control whether clients can write to you.
The inbox and its tabs
In the sidebar open Customers → Inbox (/communication). Next to the Inbox title, five pills switch the channel:
| Pill | Route | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
| Direct messages | /communication/messages | Chat between your team and a client. The client reads and answers in the client area of your platform. |
/communication/email | Personal emails you wrote to individual clients | |
/communication/instagram | See Instagram inbox | |
/communication/whatsapp | See WhatsApp inbox | |
| Telegram | /communication/telegram | See Telegram inbox |
The inbox is shared by your team: anyone with access to clients sees the same conversations and can pick up any of them.
Answer a conversation
Find the conversation
On Direct messages the left column lists conversations, newest first, with a search box (Search conversations…) and the switch All / Needs reply. A conversation with a message you have not opened yet is shown in bold with a colored dot. Needs reply keeps every conversation where the client wrote last, together with their count.
Read and reply
Click the conversation. Client messages are on the left, yours on the right. Type in Write a message… and press Enter to send (Shift + Enter starts a new line). Links in messages are clickable. Hovering a message shows a smiley button for a quick reaction.
Check who you are talking to
The panel on the right shows the client's name, email, Orders, Spent, Products, their products and communities, and Customer since. View full profile opens the client profile and View emails opens the email history filtered to this client. The info icon in the thread header hides or shows the panel.
Opening a conversation clears its unread dot for the whole team; only a reply removes it from Needs reply.
Start a conversation
Click New message, search for the client in Start a conversation and pick them. Nothing is sent until you write the first message: "The customer receives your message in the member area on your platform." You can also start from the client list (the chat icon at the end of a row, Message customer) or from a client profile (Message → In-app message); from a profile, a back arrow next to the Inbox title returns you there.
When you write to a client who is not currently reading the conversation, they also get the email "New message from [your name] ([account name])" with a link to it. They receive at most one such email until they come back to the conversation or a day passes.
Message all clients at once
Open Message all
Click Message all. The window Message all customers counts the recipients: "This message will be sent as a personal message to N customers."
Write and send
Write up to 4,000 characters, decide whether to keep Also notify recipients by e-mail ticked, and click Send to all. You see "Broadcast queued - messages are being delivered in the background."
Follow the result
The broadcast appears in the list as one row, Broadcast, with "Sent to N customers". Opening it shows the text, the delivery progress and any skipped or failed recipients. A client's answer opens as a normal one-to-one conversation.
| Limit of a broadcast | Value |
|---|---|
| Recipients | Every client in your list, up to 5,000. With more, the window warns that only the first 5,000 are reached. |
| Email notification | Available for up to 1,000 recipients. For a larger audience, use an email campaign. |
| Length | 4,000 characters |
Write a personal email
The E-mail pill lists the clients you wrote to, with All and Drafts filters. Click New email, pick the client, and write the Subject and the message. The line under the recipient shows the sender; Change lets you set the sender name, the from address and the reply-to address. Branded frame adds your logo and footer; without it the email looks like a plain message from your mailbox. Save draft keeps it for later and Send asks for confirmation before it goes out.
A personal email "goes to [email] regardless of their newsletter status and has no unsubscribe footer", so use it for individual matters, not for marketing. Replies arrive in your own mailbox, not in the inbox. The same composer opens from a client profile (Message → E-mail, or the Emails tab), and drafts prepared by the AI assistant wait here for your review.
Inbox settings
On Direct messages the gear icon opens Inbox settings:
| Setting | Effect |
|---|---|
| Customer messages | The whole channel. When off, clients no longer see the conversation with you and cannot write; messages between community members are not affected. |
| Messages from customers | When off, clients still receive your messages and broadcasts but cannot write back. |
| E-mail notifications about new messages from customers | Emails you when a client writes and nobody from your team is in the conversation, at most one email per conversation until you open it. Leave the address empty to use your contact email. |
The first two switches are the same ones as in Sites → Client area. When the channel is off, a banner at the top of the inbox says so and links to the settings.
Good to know
The list shows the 100 most recently active conversations; to reach an older one, use New message and pick the client. The automatic log of every email Zanfia sent to your clients (receipts, access links, campaigns) is not in the inbox: it lives in Customers → History, see Email and login history.
Was this article helpful?