Inbox
Read and answer your customers by chat, email and text, clear threads with the keyboard, work on many at once, set reminders, schedule email, and send custom offers.
The Inbox holds your threads with contacts. Each contact has one chat thread and one text thread, and every email conversation is a thread of its own. You work down the list, answer, and mark each thread Done until nothing is left waiting on you.
Open Inbox from the sidebar. The number next to it counts open threads with unread messages. Selecting it opens the Inbox section of the sidebar, with your lists and Labels & splits; the arrow at its top goes back to the rest of the sidebar.
Threads and channels
| Channel | When you can use it | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Chat | The contact has a Lahuta account. | Customers can write to you with Message seller on one of your service pages or on an order from you. Replies show up in their Lahuta messages. |
| The contact has an email address. | You send from your organization's Lahuta address or a mailbox you've connected. Mail only reaches the Inbox from a connected mailbox with Sync this mailbox to the inbox turned on. See Email settings. | |
| Text | Your organization has a texting number and the contact has a phone number. | A text to one of your numbers from someone you don't know creates a new contact, named by their number. See Text messaging. |
Each channel keeps its own thread, so marking a chat Done leaves the same contact's email threads where they are.
A connected mailbox brings in all its mail, sorted into two tabs on the Email list:
- Important holds email from your contacts, and email from anyone else that needs you: a new client asking for a quote, a bill, a security alert, an order. Lahuta's AI reads the first email from someone who isn't a contact and puts it here when it needs you. Email with someone you've written to from the mailbox goes here too.
- Other holds the rest, like newsletters, promotions and notifications. It doesn't count toward the unread number.
Email you send from the mailbox itself, outside Lahuta, shows in the thread too. Only your contacts' messages send alerts.
To move an email thread to the other tab, press M on it, or select Move to Other or Move to Important. Lahuta remembers the sender: their next emails go to the same tab, whether or not they're a contact.
To add someone as a contact, select Add to contacts on their row or at the top of their thread, or press ⌘I in the thread and select it there. To add new people automatically, turn on Add people who write in to contacts for your mailbox in Email settings. Every thread with them moves to Important. Replying to them does the same. A reminder needs a contact, so add them before you set one.
Texts your website sends through the Org API show in the contact's text thread, sent by your organization, and their replies arrive in the same thread.
A text thread also shows the texts your campaigns, workflows, bookings and events sent the contact, so you can see what a reply is about. Each is tagged with what sent it, like "Campaign · Spring studio sale", and a failed one is greyed out and marked Failed. These texts don't move the thread up or reopen it. With more than one number, a text says which number it went from or came to whenever that number changes.
Texts you send are blue when they went by iMessage and green when they went by SMS, the way an iPhone shows them. The status under the latest one says which, like Delivered · iMessage. A text shows green until your texting provider reports how it went.
Find a thread
The Inbox section of the sidebar picks which list you see. It shows how many threads each list holds, except Sent and Done, which keep growing.
| List | What it shows |
|---|---|
| All | Every open thread, whatever the channel. |
| Open email threads. | |
| Text | Open text threads. |
| Chat | Open chat threads. |
| Reminders | Threads you set aside until a reminder brings them back. |
| Scheduled | Email threads with an email waiting to go out later, the one going soonest first. |
| Sent | Every thread you've written in, open or done, the one you wrote in last first. |
| Done | Threads you've finished with. They reopen when the contact writes again. |
Each row shows the contact, its labels, an email's subject, the start of the latest message and when it came: the time for today's, the date for older ones. A dot at the start of the row marks unread messages. On lists that hold every channel, like All and Done, an icon shows each thread's channel. Rows are grouped by day.
Search finds threads by the contact's name, an email's subject, or the name or address of someone who isn't a contact. Press / to jump to it.
Split inboxes
Split inboxes give email with certain labels a tab of its own, so you can work through, say, every commission request in one go. Their tabs are the heading of the Email list: Important first, then a tab for each split, then Other. The number after a tab's name is how many threads it holds.
Select Split (with the plus) after the tabs to make one, or open a split's tab and select the arrow next to its name to edit, move or delete it. Email in a split leaves Important and Other, unless you keep it there too. To keep a kind of email out of Important, like receipts, label it and give it a split that doesn't keep it there.
Splits read labels, so label your email first. See Label a thread, and Labels & splits to make and arrange them all in one place.
Work through the list
The Inbox is built to be cleared from the keyboard. Press ? at any time to see every shortcut.
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| J or ↓ | Next thread |
| K or ↑ | Previous thread |
| Enter | Open the thread |
| Esc | Back to the list. In the list, clear the selection. |
| Tab | Next list. On Email it goes through each split and Other first, then on to Text. Shift+Tab goes back. |
| E | Mark done, or undo done |
| H | Remind me |
| L | Label |
| M | Move email to Important or Other |
| U | Mark read or unread |
| Shift+I | Mark read |
| Shift+U | Mark unread |
| X | Select a thread, or unselect it |
| Shift+J or Shift+K | Select the next or previous thread too |
| ⌘A | Select every thread in the list |
| R | Reply |
| A | Reply all |
| F | Forward an email |
| C | New message |
| ⌘I | Show or hide the contact panel |
| ⌘K | Open the command bar |
In the list, Done, Remind me and Label also appear when you hover a row. In a thread they sit to the right of the subject. The round buttons in the margin left of the thread go Back to the list and to the Previous or Next thread, and the one on the right shows or hides the contact panel. Marking a thread done or setting it aside from inside it opens the next one.
Use the command bar
Press ⌘K on a Mac or Ctrl+K on Windows anywhere in the Inbox, even in the middle of a reply. Type a few letters of what you want, like "remind" or "other", and press Enter.
The command bar lists:
- Selected threads: with several threads selected, what you can do to all of them, like Mark 3 done or Label 3.
- This thread: what you can do to the thread you're on or have opened, like Mark done, Remind me, Label, Move to Other, Mark read or Mark unread and, in a thread, Reply. An email thread adds Forward, and Reply all when other people are on its last email.
- Go to: every list, and on Email each tab.
- Inbox: Keyboard shortcuts, and on a list New message and Search.
Each command shows its key, so you learn the shortcuts as you go. In the Inbox, ⌘K opens the command bar instead of Find. To search the rest of Lahuta, select Find a page, contact, event or product.
Work on many threads at once
Select several threads to mark them done, label them, move them or mark them read in one go. Selecting works on a computer.
Hover a row and tick the box at its start, or press X on it. Press Shift+J or Shift+K to take in the next or previous thread too. Hold Shift and click a row to select every thread between it and the last one you ticked. Press ⌘A on a Mac or Ctrl+A on Windows to select every thread in the list.
The top of the list shows how many you've selected, like 3 selected, and what you can do to them:
- Done, or press E. When they're all done already, it says Undo done and puts them back.
- Label, or press L. Ticking a label puts it on all of them, and unticking it takes it off all of them. A label with a dash is on some of them.
- Move to Other or Move to Important, or press M, when they're all email.
- Mark read or Mark unread, or press Shift+I or Shift+U.
Select Clear, or press Esc, to let them go.
Threads that leave the list, like the ones you mark done, leave the selection too. H still sets a reminder on one thread at a time.
Mark a thread read or unread
Opening a thread marks it read. Press U on a thread in the list to mark it unread, or read again. In an open thread, U marks it unread and takes you back to the list. The latest message they sent counts as unread, and the dot comes back.
Mark a thread done
Select Done (the tick), or press E. The thread moves to Done. If the contact writes again in that thread, it comes back to the top of the Inbox on its own.
On a thread that's already done, the tick is highlighted. Select it, or press E, to put the thread back in the Inbox.
A new email you start goes straight to Done, since you're waiting on them. Their reply brings it back.
Set a reminder
Set a thread aside and have it come back when you need it.
Select Remind me (the alarm clock), or press H.
Type when, such as "mon 9am", "in 3 days" or "next friday", and press Enter. Or pick Later today, Tomorrow, This weekend, Next week or In a month.
Turn on Only if they don't reply if you only want the reminder when they haven't answered. A reply in this thread calls it off.
The thread moves to Reminders and shows when it's due. When the time comes, it returns to the top of the Inbox. To remove a reminder, select the × on it at the top of the thread.
Label a thread
Labels file threads under names you choose, like Commissions or Suppliers. A thread can have several, on any channel.
Select Label (the tag), or press L. Tick the labels you want and untick the ones you don't. Each change saves straight away. To make a new label, type its name and pick Create label.
The labels show on the thread's row in the list and under its title.
Email can also be labelled for you, by rules or by a description AI reads each email against. Set that up on Inbox → Labels & splits, or select Manage labels at the bottom of the label list.
Reply to someone
Open the thread.
Write your message.
- Chat and text: the message box sits at the bottom of the thread. Press Enter to send, or Shift+Enter for a new line. Select + to attach a file or, in a chat with a person, to send an offer.
- Email: select Reply to at the bottom of the thread, or press R. The reply opens in its place. Add Cc or Bcc if you need them, then select Send or press ⌘+Enter. Select the paperclip to attach a file.
A few things differ by channel:
- Email replies go out from the address the thread runs through, under the thread's subject. The last email, any you haven't read and any waiting to go out stay open, and earlier ones fold to one line; three or more folded in a row become a single older messages line. Select a line to open it, select the sender's name to fold an email again, and select to next to the sender to see every address it went to.
- Text shows the number it goes from. It's sent exactly as you type it, with nothing added. With more than one number, the menu next to Send starts on the number the contact is on. Pick another, and this text and later ones go from it. A counter shows how many of the 1,600 characters you've used.
- Attachments on email arrive as links at the end of the message. On text, they go with the message as media.
Reply to everyone
When other people are on the last email, as recipients or copied, the bottom of the thread reads Reply all. Select it, or press A, and they're copied in on your reply. Your organization's own addresses and the person you're replying to are left out. To answer the sender alone, press R, or on a computer select Reply next to it.
Forward an email
Send the last email in a thread on to someone else.
Open the thread on a computer and press F, or select Forward at the bottom of the thread.
Find the person or company and select them. To forward to someone who isn't a contact, type their email address and select Email with their address.
The subject starts with "Fwd:", and the email sits under a "Forwarded message" header with who sent it, when, its subject and who it went to. Write a note above it if you like, then select Send or Send later.
Attachments aren't forwarded. When the email had any, a note under your message says so. The forward starts a thread of its own, which you'll find in Sent, and the thread you forwarded from stays open.
Send an email later
Write an email now and have it go out at a better time.
Write your reply, or a new email from New message.
Select Send later.
Type when, such as "mon 9am", and press Enter. Or pick In an hour, This evening, Tomorrow morning, Tomorrow afternoon, Monday morning or In a week.
The email waits at the bottom of the thread with a Scheduled label and the time it goes. Until then:
- Send now sends it straight away.
- Change time picks a new time.
- Cancel stops it and puts its words back in the reply box so you can change them.
In the list, the thread shows when its email goes out. A scheduled email still goes if the contact replies first, so check the thread if their answer changes things.
Start a new thread
Select New message (the pencil at the top right) or press C. Find the person or company on the People or Companies tab, select them, then pick Chat, Text or Email.
To email someone who isn't in your contacts, type their email address in the search and select Email with their address. Write your email and send it. Sending it adds them to your contacts.
Someone who isn't in your contacts yet can be added right there: select New contact under the list, or Add "…" as a new contact after searching for them. Their name, email or phone fills in from what you typed. Fill in the rest and select Add and continue. If they're already a contact with that email or phone, Lahuta uses them instead of adding them twice.
When a contact has no phone number, Text says Add a phone number, and with no email address, Email says Add an email address. Select it, enter it and select Save and continue: it's saved on the contact and your message starts. Text is greyed out when the person texted STOP to one of your numbers.
- Chat and Text open your thread with them on that channel.
- Email starts a new thread. Choose the address it comes From, add a Subject and your message, and select Send or Send later.
An email from your organization's Lahuta address can't bring replies back into the Inbox. Their replies go to your organization's Public email from Organization settings, or to the first admin's email if you haven't set one. Connect a mailbox to keep the whole conversation in Lahuta.
You can also start from a contact: Email, Text and Chat at the top of their panel in Contacts start a message to them on that channel.
Searching for a contact lists the names that start with what you typed first.
See who you're talking to
The contact panel sits beside the thread. It shows their name, title or company, email and phone, and their other threads with you. Select an email address or phone number to copy it. Open in CRM takes you to them in Contacts, with their notes, reminders and activity.
Select the panel button at the top right, or press ⌘I, to show or hide it. It opens on its own on wide screens and remembers your choice.
Send a custom offer
In a chat thread with a person, select + in the message box, then Send offer to quote them a price for custom work. You set the Service, Brief, Amount, Delivery, Revisions and when it Expires in. They get an email and can accept and pay. See Custom offers.
On a phone
Inbox in the tab bar opens the list you had open last. ‹ Inbox at its top goes to all your lists, with how many threads each holds, and Labels & splits at the bottom.
- Swipe a thread right to mark it Done, or left to set a reminder.
- The round button above the tab bar starts a New message.
Get notified about new messages
When a contact writes and nobody has read it after a moment, Lahuta emails the teammate the thread is assigned to, or everyone if it's unassigned. To stop these emails, turn off Messages in your notification settings.