Definition · Business Texting
Shared inbox
Also known as: shared inbox, team inbox, shared texting inbox
A shared inbox is a single business phone number whose incoming and outgoing texts (and often calls) are visible to a whole team in one collaborative view. Multiple agents can read, assign, and reply to conversations, with internal notes and assignment — so customer texts are handled like shared tickets, not stranded on one person's phone.
In our data
2 of the 17 Business Texting vendors we track price at least one plan per staff seat.
Computed from the Business Texting dataset, as of . Every figure is sourced and dated; we record an unpublished value as "not published," never as "no."
In business texting, the shared inbox is the core collaboration feature. Instead of a number tied to one employee's device, the conversation history lives in a workspace the whole team sees. Agents can claim or be assigned a thread, leave private notes, hand off to a colleague, and avoid two people replying to the same customer.
This is also where the pricing model shows up. Shared-inbox platforms are frequently sold per seat — a monthly fee per agent who can access the inbox — so cost scales with team size rather than message volume. A low per-seat sticker multiplies quickly across a multi-person front desk, and message allowances may be pooled or per-seat. A few vendors instead price by message volume with unlimited users.
For a buyer, the decision is whether your cost is driven by how many people answer texts (favoring a flat or volume plan) or how many texts you send (favoring per-message pricing) — and whether features like assignment, notes, and CRM sync are in the base tier or gated above it.