Google Groups Collaborative Inbox: How to Set It Up

To make a Google Group a Collaborative Inbox, open the group in Google Groups, click Group settings, and under Enable additional Google Groups features select Collaborative Inbox. Then turn on conversation history, give members the Who can moderate metadata permission, and set Post replies to so answers reach the customer.

You need the Owner or Manager role, and on a work or school account your admin must have Groups for Business turned on. A group adds no seat cost, while each Workspace user does: Business Starter is $7 per user per month on Google's pricing page (October 2026). For more than Google's queue, see the shared inbox software roundup.

Turn on Collaborative Inbox for a group

Use these steps on a group you already have, such as contact@ or support@. To create one first, follow the Google Group method in how to create a group email in Gmail.

1. Sign in to Google Groups and click the group's name.
2. On the left, click Group settings.
3. Under General, find Enable additional Google Groups features and select Collaborative Inbox.
4. Still under General, set Who can post to Anyone on the web, so customers outside your domain can email the group.
5. Under Posting policies, turn Conversation history on. Collaborative Inbox needs it.
6. Click Save changes.

Note: if Anyone on the web isn't offered, your Workspace admin hasn't let groups receive email from outside the organization.

Give members permission to take and assign email

The queue only works for members who hold the right permissions. Both sit under Posting policies in Group settings, and both should include everyone who answers the group's email.

Who can moderate metadata covers taking, assigning and marking a conversation complete. Who can moderate content covers approving, blocking and deleting messages, and Google's permissions table also lists it for marking a conversation a duplicate or needing no action.

Take, assign and close a conversation

Each email to the group becomes a conversation at groups.google.com, and the team works the queue there.

1. Open the group and click a conversation, or tick the box next to several.
2. Click Take to own it. To hand it on, click Assign, enter the member's email, add a note if you like, and click Done. The note goes into the email they receive. Drop removes the assignment.
3. When it's handled, click Mark as complete. Use No action needed for mail that needs no answer, and Mark as duplicate when the same person wrote twice.
4. To see what's left, click the Down arrow in the search bar, choose Assigned to > Not assigned or Resolved status > Is unresolved, and click Search.

Note: a conversation marked as a duplicate is locked, and deleting a resolved conversation can't be undone. Filter by status instead of deleting.

Make replies reach the customer, not the group

When a member replies to group mail from Gmail, the group's Post replies to setting fills the To field. Set to All group members, the answer goes to your team and the customer never gets it.

1. In Group settings, open Email options.
2. Set Post replies to to The author of the original message only.
3. Under Posting policies, set Default sender to Group address, so replies posted from Google Groups come from the group's address.
4. Set Who can post as group to include the members who answer.
5. Click Save changes.

Replies written in Gmail still go out from the member's own address. To answer as the group from Gmail, add its address under Send mail as, as shown in send as the group address from Gmail.

Steps checked against Google's Make a group a Collaborative Inbox, Use a group as a Collaborative Inbox and group settings reference on 2026-10-21.

Collaborative Inbox not working?

If Collaborative Inbox is missing from Group settings, you aren't an owner or manager of the group, or your admin hasn't turned on Groups for Business. Ask a group owner for the Manager role, or the admin to turn Groups for Business on.

If Take and Assign don't appear for a member, their role isn't included in Who can moderate metadata. Add it and save.

If customers' emails never arrive, check Who can post first. Then check Spam message handling under Posting policies, because it can hold mail flagged as spam for a moderator instead of delivering it.

If the queue feels clunky on a phone, that's where it lives: Take, Assign and the resolved status exist only at groups.google.com, not in the Gmail app. For a shared address that works inside Gmail on desktop and mobile, compare the free options in the Gmail shared inbox guide.

If two people answer the same customer, Groups gave them no warning. It doesn't show that a teammate is already writing, so click Take before you start a reply.

If the group gets the same questions every day

Collaborative Inbox decides who answers. It doesn't help write the answer, which is the slow part when the same questions about certificates, course access or refunds arrive daily.

InboxPilot (we make it) connects to the Gmail inbox that receives the group's mail. It drafts each reply from your own documents, addressed to the person who wrote to the group, and a member checks it before sending.

Drafts come from the connected address, not the group's. It starts with a 7-day free trial, then Starter is $39 a month (pricing, October 2026).