Inbox lets you respond to email and text messages directly in Slate.

This article walks you through the mechanics of writing and sending responses.

Composing a new message

🏔️ Summit 2025 Feature

Compose messages directly from Inbox.

To start a new conversation:

1. Select +.
    

2. Enter the recipient’s name and select a record.

3. From the Address list, select an email address or phone number.

4. Select Continue.

5. Compose the message.

Conversations

🏔️ Summit 2025 Feature

Select the Conversation View icon to view conversations in-line:

Select a message to view its conversation history.

For emails, message history includes the selected message and the five most recent messages sent to or from the associated record in the past 60 days.

The link to the assigned record displays the preferred name if one exists. If one does not, the first name appears.

Select the email header to toggle message visibility:

💡 If you don’t see messages from a given person in the conversation history, those messages may not be assigned to their record. Learn more in Assigning Inbox Conversations.

The message toolbar

The message toolbar features different options depending on the message type.

Send and resolve

• Send and Resolve: Send the message to the recipient and mark the message as resolved.

• Send: This option will send the message to the recipient, but it will not update the status of the message.

• Resolve: This option will mark the message as resolved without sending a message.

Save draft

Save the composed message without sending it.

Forward

Forward Inbox messages and preserve the original message in replies:

1. Select the Forward icon.

2. Add a recipient. Note that only one email address can be used in the Recipient line. If multiple email addresses should be forwarded the message, include those as a comma-separated list in either the CC or BCC line.

3. Check Include Attachments if an attachment from the original message should be included.

4. Select a send setting:

   • Forward: Forwards the message but keeps the message open.

   • Forward and Resolve: Forwards the message and marks it as resolved.

   • Cancel: Cancels forwarding the message.

Assign

Select Assign to assign a message to a record. If the record doesn’t exist in Slate, select Create Record to create a new one.

📖 Further reading: Assigning Inbox messages

Delete

Deletes the current message. Useful for spam not caught by your spam filters.

Add note

Add custom notes to a message.

When a note is added to a message, it will appear in the thread among the sent and received messages in the order that it was submitted. Within an SMS thread, an internal note is designated in the bottom right corner of the note. Within an email conversation, an internal note is designated by the user that submitted the note, along with the note's subject and content:

Edit attachments

Add attachments to a message.

Attachments included in a message can be viewed within Inbox and assigned to a material on a person or application record. If a message contains an attachment, a paper clip icon will appear next to the subject line when viewing messages in Inbox.

The number on the attachments icon indicates the number of attachments that have been uploaded to the message.

• Display: Attachments appear in the header area of messages within the Conversation History. Select the attachment link to display the attachment.

• Size Limits: There isn't an attachment limit, but there is an overall message size limit of 30MB. While Slate can accommodate this size limit, email-sending providers and clients such as Sendgrid, Gmail, or Outlook may have different sending and inbound size limit.

View attachments to responses

When you receive a message with an attachment, you can select the attachment filename to open the attachment’s details.

📖 Further reading: Assign attachments to a record

Edit metadata

You can use custom fields and a custom form to add metadata to an Inbox conversation.

The Edit Metadata icon appears when you complete these steps:

Step 1: Add custom Inbox-Message-scoped fields

To store Inbox message metadata, create as many fields of the scope Inbox Message as you need. Only Inbox-message-scoped fields can be used to set message metadata.

1. Go to Database → Fields.

2. Select New Field.

3. Configure the following settings:

   • Status: Active

   • Scope Category: Related

   • Scope: Inbox Message

   • ID: Enter a computer-friendly, unique ID for the field. Do not use the system IDs listed in the pop-up.

   • Name: Enter a human-friendly name for the field.

   • Field Type: Select the appropriate field type for the information you’re collecting.

     

4. Select Save.

Step 2: Add a metadata form

You’ll collect data for the fields you’ve just created in a form with a scope of Inbox Message Metadata:

1. Go to Forms.

2. Select New Form.

3. Give the form a title, like Inbox Metadata.

4. Select Save.

5. Select Edit Form.

6. Select Edit Properties.

7. From the Scope list, select Inbox Message Metadata.

8. Select Save.

9. Delete all existing person-scoped fields.

10. Add form fields for each Inbox-message-scoped field you’ve created.

Step 3: Grant form access to role

For the Edit Metadata icon to appear when a user views a message, their role must be granted access to the

1. Go to Database → Role Groups & Permissions.

2. Select Roles from the sidebar.

3. Select a role to which you want to grant access to the form.

4. From the Notes Form list, select the name of the form you just created.

   

Now, when you view a conversation, the Edit Metadata icon appears. Select the icon to open the form as a pop-up.

Star

Mark important messages with a star.

Select the Show Starred status filter in the sidebar to show only messages that have been starred.

✨ Tip

Envelope color is based on a combination of the message being starred, read, or unread:

• Dark Envelope: Starred & Unread

• Light Envelope: Starred & Read

  

Tag

You can set a tag on a message to, for example, concisely represent a message's content, subject, or action to take.

You can use tags to filter messages that appear in your Inbox view.

Show in Reader

Set a message to be viewed in the Reader.

1. Select the Reader icon in the message toolbar to flag the message as enabled in the Reader. When Enable Reader Display is turned on for a message, the icon will turn yellow.

2. Set up a Reader Tab Material to show Inbox Emails:

   • Use a Reader tab Material Type of Inbox Emails

   • Select the Role of the flagged inbox emails that should be displayed

3. View the flagged message in the Reader.

✨ Tip

Changes to Reader Tab Materials may not be reflected immediately in the Reader. Be sure to clear the cache in your browser to see the most up-to-date changes in the Reader.

Prev, Next, and Cancel

• Prev / Next: These buttons allow you to navigate to the next and previous messages in Inbox based on the Inbox filters selected prior to opening the message.

• Cancel: This button will bring you back to the main Inbox page.

Sender and recipient

Use the address book to select a Slate user, relationship, or record email address.

• Sender: Change the From address. Options include the current user's email address, the current Role's default email address, and the Default Sender Email for your database.

• Recipient: By default, this will be the email address that the original message was sent from. The Recipient text box permits you to enter any email address.

• CC: Set additional email address(es) to receive copies of the email. The recipient will see the CC email addresses.

Dashboard, Snippets, and History

The Dashboard, Snippets, and History tabs appear below Inbox messages.

Dashboard

You can customize this tab in Database → Dashboards by creating a new dashboard and setting its Type to Inbox. Build a query to return data about the record assigned to the message.

📖 Further reading: Build an Inbox dashboard

Snippets

Select a Snippet to insert into the message.

📖 Further reading: Create Inbox Snippets

History

View notes, message access details, and message audit events in the History tab.