Assigning a conversation makes it clear who owns it, so nothing sits in a shared inbox waiting for someone to notice it. Aptly gives you three ways to do this: by hand on a single conversation, as a default for every new conversation that lands in an inbox, or automatically based on conditions you set in an inbox rule. This article walks through all three.
In this article, you will learn:
- How to manually assign a conversation.
- How to set a default assignment for an inbox, from Settings.
- How to assign conversations automatically with an Inbox Rule.
Manually Assigning a Conversation
This is the quickest option when you just want to hand off or claim one conversation.
- Open the conversation.
- Click the assignee avatar in the quick-details row (or the empty avatar if it's unassigned).
- This opens the Assign panel. Search for a teammate and select them, or choose Unassigned to remove ownership.
Once assigned:
- That person becomes the owner and is notified of new incoming messages.
- The conversation shows up in their Assigned to me view, under Mine.
- Assignment does not make the conversation private. Teammates with access to the shared inbox can still find it in the inbox's Open view.
This works the same way whether you're in Table view or Preview view.
Setting a Default Assignment for an Inbox
If you want every new conversation in a given inbox to land on a specific person or rotate through your team automatically, set that inbox's default assignment rather than assigning each conversation by hand.
- Click Settings at the bottom of the Inbox sidebar.
- Go to the Help Desk tab.
- Under Help Desk Inboxes, find the inbox you want to configure and click the edit (pencil) icon.
- On the right side of the Edit Inbox screen, you'll see Auto Assignment Rules, "Automatically assign conversations when they are first created." Choose one:
- Manual — no default assignment, conversations wait for someone to assign them by hand (this is the default).
- Specific User — every new conversation goes straight to one person.
- Round Robin (All Users) — new conversations rotate evenly across everyone with access to the inbox.
- Round Robin (By Team) — new conversations rotate across a specific team, and you can add extra individual users into that rotation too.
- Click Save.
This only affects conversations as they're first created, it won't retroactively reassign anything already sitting in the inbox.
Assigning Conversations Automatically with an Inbox Rule
Use an email Inbox Rule when ownership depends on conditions such as contact type or topic. This lets different kinds of incoming emails in the same inbox go to different people.
- Click Inbox Rules at the bottom of the Inbox sidebar.
- Click Add a new rule (or edit an existing one).
- Choose the Inbox the rule applies to.
- Build your Condition. For example, "Contains Certain Contact Types" set to Resident, with OR and AND conditions available if you need to combine more than one.
- Under Action, choose Assign To, then pick how it should assign:
- Specific User
- Round Robin (All Users)
- Round Robin (By Team) (with optional additional users)
- Set how often the action should apply (for example, once per conversation), then click Save.
Allow time for a new or edited rule to take effect, then verify the assignment with a new incoming test message. For rule frequency, testing, and troubleshooting, see Inbox Rules.
Which Should You Use?
- Reach for manual assignment when you're making a one-off call, claiming a conversation yourself, or handing something off.
- Reach for an inbox's default assignment setting when you want a simple, blanket rule for everything that lands in that inbox, like always going to one property manager or always rotating through a team.
- Reach for an Inbox Rule when the right owner depends on something about the conversation itself, like the contact type or topic, and a single default wouldn't cover it.
Summary
Use manual assignment for individual handoffs, a default assignment for new conversations in an inbox, and Inbox Rules for conditional routing. Assignment identifies the owner; it does not replace shared-inbox access settings.
Related Articles
- Collaborating in the Inbox — share context and add internal comments during a handoff.
- Inbox Rules — configure and test conditional assignment.
- Setting Up the Help Desk — manage shared-inbox access and default assignment.