Topics label conversations so you can group related messages, find them again, and keep your team’s filing consistent. For example, use Maintenance Request for repair conversations and Rent Receipt for payment-receipt questions.
This guide covers shared and private topics, adding labels yourself, and AI categorization. AI categorization labels conversations; it does not send a reply.
Shared topics also help you review trends and response times in Inbox Reports → Topic Breakdown. They can be linked to communication templates so Aptly can suggest a relevant saved response. Keep topic labels accurate before relying on reports or suggested replies. For details, see Inbox Reports and Communication Templates: Create, Use, and Manage.
Shared and private topics
- Shared topics are your company’s common labels. The conversation picker calls these Public topics. Use them when your team needs consistent categories.
- Private topics are for your own organization and are visible only to you. Manage them in Settings → My Settings → My Topics.
- Manual tagging means choosing a topic yourself on a conversation.
- AI categorization reads the conversation and selects shared topics automatically. Private topics are not offered to the AI.
A conversation can have more than one topic. Removing a label from one conversation does not delete the topic from your company’s list.
Create and manage shared topics
You need access to Setup or the Shared Topics permission to manage the shared list.
- Open Settings and select Shared Topics under Company Settings.
- Select New Topic.
- Enter a short Name and a Description explaining when your team should use it.
- Choose a Highlight color or emoji, then select Create.
Use names your team can recognize quickly. For example, “Maintenance Request” is clearer than a general label such as “Other.”
Shared Topics has three tabs:
- Topics contains approved topics that can appear on conversations, in filters, and in reports.
- Pending contains new names suggested by AI. Use Open in inbox to review the conversations behind a suggestion, then approve, archive, or delete it. Approve All approves every pending suggestion, so review the list first.
- Archived contains retired topics and rejected suggestions. You can approve one again or delete it permanently.
Only new topic names need approval. AI can apply an existing approved topic without asking you to approve that label each time. When AI suggests a new name, the conversation is linked to it, but the label stays hidden from conversations, filters, and reports until you approve the name in Pending.
Archive a suggestion you do not want to use, or a topic you want to retire. It moves to Archived and stays hidden. AI can still recognize and reuse that name, which prevents it from repeatedly proposing the same unwanted topic. You can approve an archived topic later if you want it visible again.
The current topic forms do not have keyword fields, an AI Processing toggle, or a prompt field. You do not need to configure keywords when creating a topic.
Set up AI categorization
AI categorization runs automatically as email arrives. It must be enabled for your company and for each inbox you want it to process. If the option is unavailable, ask your administrator to check your company’s access and configuration.
To be categorized, a conversation also needs a sender with a person type used by that inbox, such as tenant, owner, vendor, or applicant, and readable message text. An email containing only an attachment or image is skipped.
- Open Settings.
- Select Personal Inbox for your own inbox or Help Desk for a shared inbox.
- Select the inbox.
- Under Inbox Features, enable AI Categorization and select Save.
- Repeat for any other inbox that should use AI categorization.
For the inbox settings screens, see Setting Up AI in the Inbox.
How AI chooses a topic
AI reads the whole email thread, from the oldest message to the newest, rather than classifying only the latest reply. It considers your company’s shared topics and the topics already on that conversation, so it can keep using a suitable label as the discussion continues. It suggests a new name only when no existing topic fits. Private topics are not considered.
Most conversations receive one topic. When the thread covers two separate issues, AI can add a second: for example, Maintenance Request and Rent Receipt for a leaking tap and a missing payment receipt. AI adds at most two topics each time it processes the thread; this is not a limit on the conversation’s total topics. A long-running thread can collect more as its subject changes.
You can add or remove topics yourself, whether or not AI categorization is enabled. Remove an AI-applied label the same way as a manual one, using X on the label in the conversation’s Topics section.
Manually applied topics appear before AI-applied topics. In the conversation list, only two labels are shown directly; a +2-style counter means there are more. Open the conversation’s details to see all its topics.
If a conversation has no visible topic
- Check that company categorization and the inbox’s AI Categorization setting are enabled.
- Check that the sender has a person type used by the inbox, such as tenant, owner, vendor, or applicant.
- Make sure the email contains readable text. An attachment-only or image-only email is skipped.
- Check Shared Topics → Pending. A new suggested name stays hidden until approved.
- Add a topic manually if needed. AI can leave a conversation uncategorized when it is not confident.
An unlabeled conversation does not show a reason for the missing label. Check the sender’s person type and Pending before assuming categorization has failed.
Existing mail is not backfilled automatically. Turning on AI categorization does not go through all the conversations already in your inbox. Re-importing a mailbox can send old mail through categorization again; it is not required for everyday topic setup. You can label existing conversations manually instead.
When AI categorization is enabled for the company, it replaces the older keyword-matching process. Keyword-based topic rules do not continue running alongside it.
How to Add a Topic to a Conversation
- Click on a conversation in your inbox. Expand the Conversation Details.
- Under Topics, click the plus icon.
- If using an existing Topic, choose from All, Public or Private, then click on the selected Topic from the list. You can also use the search bar to find a specific Topic.
- If the Topic you’re looking for doesn’t exist, click New Topic.
- Turn Private on for a private topic, or leave it off for a public (shared) topic.
- In the name field, type the name of your Topic. This should be a very short label you’ll use to categorize multiple conversations.
- Add a description explaining when to use the topic. Current topic forms do not use keywords. For shared setup, use the steps above; for personal setup, see Configuring Private Topics.
- Click Create. Then select the Topic you created to assign it to the conversation.
- To remove a topic from this conversation, hover over its label and click X.
How to Bulk Assign Topics to Multiple Conversations
- Select the conversations you want to label.
- In the bulk actions menu, select Set Topic.
- Select the topic.
- Check the Topics section in a selected conversation’s details to confirm the label.
How to View Conversations by Topic
You can easily view conversations by Topic by adding them to your Inbox Menu.
- To add a Topic to your Inbox Menu, click More.
- Select Topics and turn on the switches for the topic shortcuts you want in your inbox navigation. Click outside the menu to close it.
- To view the conversations by Topic, click the Topic view you created in your Inbox Menu. Your inbox will show all the conversations for that Topic.
Search for Conversations by Topic
- Run an inbox search.
- In the search-results toolbar, select Topics.
- Use Search Topics or browse the All, Public and Private tabs to find the topic you want.