Shared inbox in Google Workspace: what it is, what it is not, and when to use it

Every company has an info@. In most companies it works badly: either nobody replies because everyone assumes someone else will, or two people reply at once and the customer gets two different answers.

Google Workspace can solve this at least three ways, and the choice matters more than it looks.

1. A Google Group with Collaborative Inbox (free)

Create a group info@yourdomain.com and enable Collaborative Inbox. Messages land in the group, team members assign them, mark them resolved, and see who is on what.

Pro: costs nothing. A group is not a user, so no licence. Con: the interface is clumsy. It is not Gmail, and your team will say so. Fine for a few messages a day.

2. A delegated mailbox (best daily experience)

Create a normal user info@ and delegate access to the team. Everyone sees the mailbox in their own Gmail and replies as info@.

Pro: real Gmail with filters, search and spam protection. Nobody needs training. Con: one licence, and delegation does not show who is already replying, so double replies remain possible. This is the right answer for most small companies.

3. The new built-in shared inbox

Google has started rolling out a true shared inbox inside Workspace, combining the Gmail interface with assignment. Two warnings: availability depends on your plan and keeps changing, so check your own Admin console rather than trust articles, and it is still not a full support system.

When Gmail is no longer enough

If the team handles 40 or more customer emails a day, no Gmail configuration fixes it. That is helpdesk territory: tickets, response times, history. Gmail is an email client. Forcing it to be a CRM ends in a chaos of labels and filters.

Whichever you choose

• One reply address. Replies from personal accounts vanish from team view.
• Working SPF, DKIM and DMARC, because shared addresses land in spam first: see our email authentication guide.
• A shared signature with the company name and phone.

Not sure which of the three fits? One conversation settles it, and setup takes about an hour as part of managed IT.