Inbox, conversations, and SLA

Overview

Inbound comments and DMs from connected social accounts land in one place inside Slack. The unified inbox on the Team plan and above collects conversations and flags in the Engage work center so your team can triage, reply, assign ownership, and track response time against targets.

Without unified inbox access in your plan, inbox setup and reply flows are not available. Confirm your plan and that accounts are connected before you expect inbound events.

How it works

One queue in Engage

Open the Engage work center from App Home or the Command Palette. The inbox surfaces unresolved work as rows you can open, filter, and act on. Each row represents a thread or inbox item tied to a connected account.

Inbox views are grouped into tabs so counts on App Home match the list you open:

• Conversations: threads that need a human reply
• Alerts: items flagged for attention
• Content: content-related inbox signals
• Performance: inbox performance context for the brand

From a row you can claim work, snooze it, close it, or open the full conversation detail.

Conversations and reply flows

Reply flows on the Team plan and above let teammates answer from Slack without switching apps. Open a conversation from the inbox list or detail view, then use the action row to reply, assign, snooze, or mark resolved.

A reply can publish to the platform and optionally close the thread in the same step. Assignment updates the owner and can notify the assignee. Snooze hides the item until the time you choose. Resolved clears the item from the active queue.

Saved reply templates and variables also require the Team plan or above. Admins can manage reply flows and inbox rules from Settings Hub or the reply flows manager on App Home.

SLA and notifications

SLA settings on the Team plan and above define response targets for inbox work. The SLA dashboard summarizes which conversations are inside or outside target. SLA metrics are brand-scoped: changing targets applies to new measurements immediately after you save.

Notification preferences control which alerts fire when items breach SLA or need triage. Pair SLA targets with notification settings so the right people see overdue work.

CRM context in explicitly enabled environments

CRM integrations are not currently sold in the public plan catalog. In explicitly enabled internal environments, they let you match a conversation to a contact and log a touchpoint from the conversation detail action row.

Examples

Comment needs a fast answer. A customer comment appears in Conversations. You claim it, open the reply modal, insert a saved reply with the customer’s name filled in, send the reply, and mark resolved. The row leaves the active queue.

Hand off overnight coverage. A thread arrives during the day. You assign it to a teammate in another timezone. They receive a notification, open the conversation from Engage, reply, and leave it open until the customer responds.

SLA breach alert. Response targets are set to four hours. A DM sits unassigned past the window. The SLA dashboard shows it outside target, and notification preferences route an alert to the on-call channel so someone can claim and reply.

Match CRM before replying. In an explicitly enabled environment, a repeat customer writes in on Instagram, you link the thread to their CRM record, send the reply, then log the touchpoint so sales sees the interaction.

Related tasks

• Set up inbox and saved replies for first-time Engage configuration
• Inbox events are missing when connected accounts stop sending inbound events
• Work Objects and Slack Lists for how inbox cards can appear in channels and link previews