The case for a shared inbox is made elsewhere on this journal, and it hasn’t changed: one list the whole team works from, a name on each conversation, and the customer’s history in one place whichever way they wrote.
Forwarding was the catch
A shared inbox has to get your mail somehow, and until now that meant forwarding: a rule in your own mailbox that sends a copy of each email on to us. It works, and it takes a few minutes. It is still a step, and it is the one people put off.
Forwarding also left one gap open. Inbox holds the whole record for the whole team, but only if every reply is started inside it. If a team member replied to a message from their mailbox, that reply would never get to Inbox, leaving the team inside Inbox looking at one half of a conversation.
Now it is a sign-in
If your mail is on Outlook, whether that is an outlook.com address or a Microsoft 365 mailbox at your own domain, Connect Outlook is the first thing signup offers you. You sign in with Microsoft, say yes, and you are back in Inbox looking at a screen that tells you what happens now. Which is this:
- New email in Outlook appears in Inbox, usually within a minute. Nothing is forwarded and there is no rule to set.
- Replies from Inbox go out through your mailbox, as your address, with a copy in your Sent Items, exactly as if you had typed them in Outlook.
- A reply you do type in Outlook, to a customer Inbox knows, is added to that customer’s conversation. The record is complete whichever app the reply came from.
What is read: mail arriving in your inbox from the moment you connect; nothing older is touched. It looks at your Sent Items only to find replies to customers it already knows. That is the whole of it. You can disconnect in Settings at any time, and the connection shows on your Microsoft account page like any other app you have allowed.
If you already use Inbox with a forwarding rule from Outlook, the Connect card is waiting at the top of Settings. Connect, and the rule can go.
The account fills itself in
The other setup nobody wants is the form. Your logo, your phone number, your address, your opening hours, the links to your social pages. All of it is needed, for the signature on every reply and for the message a customer gets when they write to you out of hours, and all of it is already written down, on your website.
So when you sign up with an address at your own domain, Inbox reads your site while you are still reading the welcome screen. It takes what the site says about itself: the logo from the header, the phone number and address from the contact page or the footer, the social links, and the opening hours where the site states them properly, so it never guesses at when you are closed. It writes what it finds into the empty fields and never over anything you have typed. Then the checklist shows one line, “Check what we found”, and one look tells you whether your signature is right.
Most of the time it is. Where it isn’t, you change one field. Either way, the first reply you send from Inbox goes out with your logo and your details on it, and you did not type any of them in.
What day one looks like
Sign up, and connect Outlook. Read the screen that says what will happen. Invite the team, which costs nothing per person. Then send yourself an email from a personal address and watch it arrive, take it, leave a note on it, and reply. That’s the ease of a shared inbox, and it takes less time than a few sips of coffee.
Common questions
Do I have to forward my Outlook email to use Vidual Inbox?
No. Sign in with Microsoft when you sign up and Inbox reads your mailbox directly: new email appears in Inbox within about a minute, replies go out from your own address with a copy in your Sent Items, and a reply you type in Outlook itself is added to the customer’s conversation.
What does Vidual Inbox read from my Outlook mailbox?
New mail arriving in your inbox from the moment you connect; nothing older is touched. It looks at your Sent Items only to find replies to customers it already knows, so a reply sent from Outlook joins the record. Replies from Inbox are sent through your mailbox as your address. You can disconnect in Settings at any time, and the connection also shows on your Microsoft account page.
Does Connect Outlook work with a Microsoft 365 mailbox at my own domain?
Yes. It works with a personal outlook.com, hotmail.com or live.com address and with a Microsoft 365 mailbox at your own domain. You sign in as the address your customers write to, and replies go out from it.
What does Vidual Inbox take from my website at signup, and can I change it?
If your address is on your own domain, Inbox reads your website while you finish signing up and fills in your logo, phone number, address, social links and, where the site states them properly, your opening hours. It writes only into empty fields and never overwrites anything you have typed. The checklist then shows what was found; one look, and you can change or clear any of it.
If the setup is what has been stopping you, it is a sign-in now. Vidual Inbox is a 14-day free trial, no card needed. £34.99/month after that, unlimited team, no per-seat charges. Or book a 20-minute call and we’ll connect your mailbox together.