> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.rescueconsole.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# The Communications inbox

> Reading and answering the mail sent to your organization's addresses, and how each conversation finds the right record.

Press **Communications** in the sidebar to open the **Inbox**: mail sent to your organization's addresses, grouped into conversations. Mail arrives here because you forward your own addresses (adoptions@, fosters@) to the addresses listed under **Settings → Communications → Inboxes**. See [Inboxes](/communications/inboxes) for how to set that up.

Anyone whose role can **See** Communications can open the inbox. Answering, assigning and closing conversations needs **Change** on Communications.

## Conversations

The list of conversations is on the left, and the one you open is on the right. Newest activity is at the top. Each row shows:

* who sent the latest message, and when
* the subject, and the first line of the latest message
* which mailbox it arrived in, and how many messages it holds
* **closed**, **spam** or **archived** when it is one of those
* the name of the person it is assigned to

A conversation in bold is unread.

Three figures sit above the list: **Conversations** (how many match your filters), **Unread**, and **Nobody yet** (how many nobody has been assigned).

**New message** opens [Compose](/communications/compose). When you have a mailbox chosen in the filters, the new message starts out sent from that mailbox.

## Filters

The panel beside the list filters by **Mailbox**, **Assigned to** and **Status**, with a count beside each choice.

| Filter      | What it does                                                                                                            |
| ----------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Mailbox     | Only the conversations that arrived in one mailbox. Only the mailboxes you can read are offered.                        |
| Assigned to | One team member's conversations, or **Nobody yet** for the ones no one has picked up.                                   |
| Status      | **open**, **closed**, **spam** or **archived**. With no status chosen, you see every conversation that is not archived. |
| Unread only | A tick box above the list. Only the conversations nobody has read.                                                      |

Changing a filter closes the conversation you had open.

### Saved views

Under **Views**, press **+ Save current view** and give it a name to keep the filters you have set. Press the name later to put them back. Your saved views are yours alone; nobody else sees them.

## Which mailboxes you see

Each mailbox is either open to everyone who can **See** Communications, or restricted to named people and roles. **Organization admins** can always read every mailbox.

A mailbox you cannot read does not appear anywhere for you: it is not offered as a filter, its conversations are not listed or counted, and they do not appear on a person's record either. Two colleagues can open the same person and see a different number of conversations. Who can read which mailbox is set on [Inboxes](/communications/inboxes#who-can-read-a-mailbox).

## Unread and read

Opening a conversation marks it read, if you can **Change** Communications. If you can only **See** it, it stays bold, so your colleagues can still tell that nobody has dealt with it.

**Mark unread** puts it back in bold. A new message arriving in a conversation marks it unread again, and sending a reply marks it read.

## Reading a message

Each message shows who sent it (with their address), and when. Messages you and your colleagues sent show as **You**.

A message with formatting shows in a box that you can make taller by dragging its corner. **Show plain text** shows the words alone, and **Show the formatted version** goes back.

Pictures from the internet are hidden until you press **Show images**, because loading them tells the sender that you opened the message.

Attachments are listed under the message by file name and type.

When the checks mail servers run on a sender fail, the message carries the line **We could not verify this came from who it says it did.** Treat it with care: the From address may be forged.

## Replying

You need **Change** on Communications to reply. The box under the conversation is **Your reply**, with buttons for bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, links, headings, quotes, lists, a divider and a table.

Your own email signature is already in the box when it opens. You set it on [your account](/settings/your-account). **Send reply** becomes available once you have written something besides the signature.

Your reply goes to whoever wrote the last message. When the last message was yours, it goes to the same people as that one. You cannot change who a reply goes to; to write to somebody else, start a new message in [Compose](/communications/compose). A reply cannot carry attachments.

After it is sent, the page says **Sent to** and the address, and the box is ready for another reply.

### Inserting a template

**Insert a template…** lists your active [message templates](/communications/templates). The template goes in above your signature, filled in from the people and records this conversation is linked to. Suggested links do not count until someone confirms them.

Anything the template asks for that the conversation cannot supply stays in the reply as it was written, and the page lists it: **Still to fill in:** followed by the placeholders. When no person is linked, it adds **Linking a person to this thread fills their details.**

<Warning>
  A reply that still contains a placeholder such as `{{first_name}}` is not sent. Replace it with the real words, then press **Send reply** again.
</Warning>

### When a reply is not sent

* **This organization cannot send email yet.** Outgoing mail is paused. See [Sending](/communications/sending).
* The address is on the do-not-send list. The message names the address. See [Compose](/communications/compose#who-will-not-be-emailed) for what puts an address there.
* **Your reply was saved but not sent**, followed by the reason the email provider gave. The reply is kept in the conversation so you can see what you wrote.

### What the other person receives

Your reply comes from the address shown on [Sending](/communications/sending), and answers to it come back to this mailbox.

The subject ends with a short reference in square brackets, and the bottom of the message carries the line `##- Please type your reply above this line -##` with the same reference. That is how their answer finds its way back into this conversation. Neither is shown in the conversation here.

## Assigning, closing and archiving

These controls sit above the messages, for people who can **Change** Communications.

| Control            | What it does                                                                                                                             |
| ------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Mark unread        | Puts the conversation back in bold for everyone.                                                                                         |
| Close, Reopen      | Marks it **closed**. A closed conversation stays in the list, labelled closed. A new message in it marks it unread but leaves it closed. |
| Archive, Unarchive | Takes it out of every view except **archived**. A new message in an archived conversation brings it back and marks it unread.            |
| Spam, Not spam     | Marks it **spam**. It does not stop that sender writing to you again.                                                                    |
| Assigned to        | Hands it to a team member (anyone with a login), or **Nobody yet**.                                                                      |
| Merge              | Joins it to another conversation. See below.                                                                                             |

### Merging two conversations

Sometimes an answer arrives as a conversation of its own. **Merge** joins it to the one it belongs to.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the conversation that should not be on its own">
    **Merge** is offered only when there are other conversations in the list you are looking at.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Choose the conversation it belongs to">
    Pick from **Choose a conversation…**, then press **Merge**.
  </Step>
</Steps>

Every message and every link moves into the conversation you chose, and the first conversation no longer exists. The result is unread if either was. Both conversations must be in the same mailbox.

<Warning>
  A merge cannot be undone.
</Warning>

## How mail finds its conversation

When a message arrives, it joins an existing conversation only on firm evidence, tried in this order:

1. The reference carried in the subject or at the bottom of every message you send. An answer carrying it joins that conversation, however old.
2. The reply details that mail programs add, matched to a message in the same mailbox.
3. A message that says it is a reply (its subject starts with "Re:" or it carries reply details), from an address that has exactly one conversation in this mailbox with activity in the last 30 days.

Anything else starts a new conversation. Two messages with the same subject from different people are never put together.

A message sent to two of your addresses arrives in each mailbox separately.

## How mail is matched to a record

The names under a conversation's subject are the records it is linked to: people, animals, organizations, adoption applications and form submissions. Press a name to open that record.

| How the link was made                                   | What you see                                                                                                       |
| ------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| The message answers something you sent                  | It joins that conversation and keeps its links. A confirmed link stays confirmed, a suggestion stays a suggestion. |
| The sender's address matches exactly one person's email | That person is **suggested**: shown with a dashed outline and the word suggested.                                  |
| You started the conversation in Compose                 | The people and animals you chose, and the record you started from, are linked and confirmed.                       |
| Somebody linked it by hand                              | Confirmed.                                                                                                         |

Press the tick beside a suggestion to confirm it, or the cross to drop it. When two people share the sender's address, nobody is suggested, because either could be the one writing.

When no person is linked yet:

* **Add** (the sender's name) **as a person** makes a new person with the sender's name and address, and links them.
* **Link a person** finds someone already on file and links them. Check here first: most people who write in are already on file, perhaps under another address.

### Where linked conversations appear

A **confirmed** link puts the conversation on the record: in the **Emails** section on the **Details** tab of a [person's record](/people/record), on an [adoption application](/animals/applications), and as **Conversations about this submission** on a [form submission](/everyday/submissions). A suggestion does not appear on any record until someone confirms it. Each list shows only the conversations in mailboxes you can read.

The links also decide what a template fills in when you insert one into a reply.