Shared Inbox in Gmail: Delegation, Google Groups, or a Tool
Shayan, Founder5 min read
Gmail does not have a shared mailbox. What it has is three ways to let more than one person answer support@yourcompany.com: give colleagues delegated access to the account, turn a Google Group into a collaborative inbox, or forward the address into a tool built for the job. Which one fits depends on how many people reply, whether you need to know who is handling what, and whether you want an AI agent answering first.
We make UserJot, which is the third option, so weigh this accordingly. The Gmail facts below come from Google's help pages, checked in October 2026.
Option 1: Gmail delegation
Delegation lets another Google account open your Gmail and read, send and delete mail from it. The owner adds delegates under Settings, Accounts and Import, then Grant access to your account. The invitation expires after a week, and access can take up to 24 hours to start.
A personal Gmail account can have up to 10 delegates. A Google Workspace account can have up to 1,000, with 40 able to use the account at the same time under typical use, and the administrator has to allow delegation first. Delegates cannot use Chat, change the password or touch account settings, and they cannot be added to an alias, only to a real account.
When a delegate replies, the message shows the owner's address and the delegate's address. On Workspace the administrator can set it to show the owner's address only.
What delegation does not give you is any sense of who is doing what. Everyone sees the same inbox, nothing tells you a colleague has a message open, and the only way to claim a thread is to say so in Slack. For two people covering an address on alternate days it is enough. With three people in the same inbox at once, nothing stops two of them replying to the same message.
Option 2: Google Groups collaborative inbox
A collaborative inbox is a Google Group with a few extra features turned on. Mail to the group address lands in a shared view where members can assign a conversation to themselves or a colleague, mark it complete, mark it as needing no action or as a duplicate, apply labels, and filter by what is assigned to them. A group owner or manager turns it on in the group's settings.
On Google Workspace the administrator has to turn on Groups for Business before a group can use it. A personal Google Group gets an address at googlegroups.com, not on your own domain. Google's pages list no extra charge for it.
Assignment and resolution are the two things delegation lacks, and the collaborative inbox has both. What it lacks is the rest of a help desk: there are no internal notes on a thread, no reminders, no customer record and nothing that answers for you. Replies go out as the member who sent them, or from the group's address if the group owner allows it under Who can post as group. For a team on Google Workspace with a handful of support emails a day, that is enough.
Option 3: forward the address into a support tool
The third way keeps Gmail as the address and moves the work somewhere else. You add a forwarding rule on support@ that sends every message to an address the tool gives you, and the tool becomes the inbox. Gmail still receives and keeps a copy.
This is how UserJot's inbox takes email. The workspace gets a forwarding address, you point support@ at it from Gmail's forwarding settings, and the thread appears next to the live chats from your site. Nothing changes in your DNS. Each thread can be assigned to one teammate, carries internal notes the customer never sees, can be snoozed or given a reminder, and is marked resolved when it is done. Juno, our AI agent, reads each new email first, answers it from your docs and the sites you point her at, and hands it to the team when she cannot. A customer who asks for a feature gets it filed on the feedback board with their vote once they confirm.
Two things to know before you choose it. Replies go out from the UserJot forwarding address, not from support@ on your own domain, and the customer's reply lands in the same thread. And a workspace has one forwarding inbox, so one support address, not several. Conversations is in beta and free on every plan while it is, with three teammates on Free and up to 100 from $29 a month.
Which one to pick
One or two people, a few emails a day, no need to know who is on what: delegation, in ten minutes.
A team on Google Workspace that wants to assign and close threads but does not need notes, reminders or an AI answering: the collaborative inbox.
A team that wants chat and email in one place, notes on a thread, and an agent handling the questions your docs already answer: forward support@ into a tool. Ours is one. The guide to managing a shared inbox covers what the day looks like once it is set up.
Setting up the forward in Gmail
- Open Gmail as support@, then Settings, See all settings, Forwarding and POP/IMAP.
- Click Add a forwarding address and paste the address your tool gave you. In UserJot it is in the conversations email settings.
- Gmail sends a verification message to that address. The tool shows it to you, or forwards it to you; click the link in it.
- Choose Forward a copy of incoming mail, and pick whether Gmail keeps its copy in the inbox or archives it. Keep it until you trust the new setup.
- Send a test email to support@ and check it arrives in the tool.
On Google Workspace the administrator can add the tool's address as an extra recipient in a routing rule, under Apps, Google Workspace, Gmail, Routing, so the forward is not tied to a user's Gmail settings.
Questions people ask
Does Gmail have a shared mailbox?
No. Gmail has delegation, where other accounts open yours, and Google Workspace has the Google Groups collaborative inbox, where a group address becomes a shared view with assignment. Neither is a mailbox several people log in to directly.
How many people can share one Gmail inbox?
Up to 10 delegates on a personal Gmail account and up to 1,000 on Google Workspace, with 40 using it at the same time under typical use. A collaborative inbox is limited by the group's membership, not by delegation.
Can two people reply from the same Gmail address?
Yes, through delegation. The reply shows the owner's address and the delegate's address, unless a Workspace administrator sets it to show the owner only. Nothing stops both of them replying to the same message.
Is the Google Groups collaborative inbox free?
Yes. It is a group setting, not a product, and on Google Workspace the administrator turns on Groups for Business to get it. Google's help pages do not state a licence cost for a group.
Can I keep Gmail and add a help desk?
Yes. The forward in the steps above leaves Gmail as the address and the archive, and the help desk becomes where the team replies. If you stop using the tool, delete the forwarding rule and the mail stays in Gmail as before.
