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Definition
💡 Shared inbox: one email address, like support@ or sales@, that a whole team can read, reply to, and manage together instead of forwarding messages back and forth. Sometimes called a shared mailbox, same idea either way. A shared inbox lets multiple people work out of one email address without sharing a password. Everyone sees the same messages, and in good tools, sees who's already replying, so nobody double-sends the same answer.
Why teams need a shared inbox
Picture this: a customer emails support@yourcompany.com asking about a refund. Two teammates open it at once. Both reply. Now the customer's got two different answers, and someone looks disorganized. That's the exact mess a shared inbox exists to prevent.
So how did teams handle this before shared inboxes existed? One of two ways, and neither was great. Either everyone forwarded messages around (context gets lost, threads fork, somebody misses the memo), or the whole team logged into one shared password, a security problem waiting to happen. A shared inbox skips both. One address, one inbox, everyone working from the same view.
Email clients like Spark build this in directly, so a support@ or sales@ address behaves like a real team workspace: assign a message to whoever's handling it, comment on a draft before it goes out, see who's already replied. Spark's smart inbox keeps that shared address from turning into noise, the same way it does for a personal account.
And getting this wrong has a real cost. Microsoft's own guidance on shared mailboxes notes they support up to 50 GB of storage with no license required at all. That's built for a real, working team inbox, not a stripped-down afterthought.
Shared inbox vs. shared mailbox vs. delegation
You'll see these terms used almost interchangeably, and honestly, that's mostly fine. But the distinctions matter once you're actually setting one up.
Shared mailbox is Microsoft's specific term for a dedicated mailbox multiple people access, no separate login required. It's built for a role, not a person: support@, billing@, hr@.
Shared inbox is the broader term, and it's what Google Groups calls a "collaborative inbox," a group address where members take, assign, and resolve conversations together. Functionally, it's doing the same job.
Email delegation is different: one person handing access to their own personal inbox to someone else, an assistant checking an executive's email, say. A shared inbox belongs to the team from the start.
Set up a shared mailbox when the address itself is the point, since support@ needs to outlive whoever's currently answering it. Use delegation when it's really one person's inbox needing backup coverage.
Setting up a shared inbox
Where you do this depends entirely on your provider, and this usually isn't something you toggle solo.
In Gmail (via Google Groups):
- Create a group at groups.google.com and add your teammates
- In Group settings, under "Enable additional Google Groups features," turn on Collaborative Inbox (this needs conversation history turned on first)
- Set who can take, assign, and resolve conversations under the group's permission settings
In Outlook (Microsoft 365):
- An admin creates the mailbox first: in the Microsoft 365 admin center, go to Teams & Groups, then Shared mailboxes, select "Add a shared mailbox," and add members
- Right-click your account in Outlook's folder pane, choose "Add shared folder or mailbox," and type the address
- It shows up under "Shared with me." To send as that address, show the From field under Options and switch it
In Spark:
- You'll need a team set up first, plus a Spark Pro subscription
- Go to Settings, then Accounts, then Add Shared Account, pick your team, and log into the address you're sharing
- Choose which teammates get access, then hit Share Account
Spark's version skips the separate-license question entirely. Everyone with access just sees the shared address as another account in their sidebar.
How to make sure sharing inboxes works for you
Assign before you reply. Whoever's handling a message should claim it first, or you're back to the double-reply problem a shared inbox was supposed to solve.
Set a "from" convention and stick to it. Decide whether replies go out under the team's name or the individual's. Customers notice when it flips randomly.
Don't let it become a dumping ground. A shared inbox for "everything the team might need to see" turns into noise fast. Keep it scoped to the actual role.
Review access regularly. Someone leaves the team, remove them from the shared account the same day. It's a five-minute task that prevents a bigger headache later.
Watch for silent duplicate work. Even with assignment tools, two people occasionally draft the same reply. A quick internal comment before sending saves the "oh, you already answered this" moment.
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