# How shared inboxes work

An address the whole team answers from, with the same folders as any other mailbox.

A shared inbox is an address more than one person answers: sales@, service@, accounts@. Every member sees the same mail, and nobody owns it the way an individual mailbox is owned.

**Video coming soon:** A tour of a shared inbox and the folders inside it

![TeamEmail with the Shared Inboxes section of the sidebar showing four team mailboxes: Accounts, Sales and Quotes, Service Desk and Workshop. Accounts is expanded and its Inbox is selected, revealing the same five folders as any mailbox: Inbox with 5, Sent Items, Archive with 1, Junk Email and Deleted Items.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/teamemail/shared-inboxes/inbox.png)

*Four shared inboxes, one expanded. The folders inside are the same five every mailbox has.*

## What is inside one

Expanding a shared inbox reveals the real Outlook folders behind it, not a TeamEmail invention. They behave exactly as they do in a personal mailbox, with one difference that matters: every member is looking at the same contents.

- **Inbox**: Mail as it arrives, visible to every member rather than to one owner.
- **Sent Items**: Everything sent from the address, whichever member sent it.
- **Archive**: Conversations put out of the way, which return to Open if someone replies.
- **Junk Email**: Mail Outlook has flagged as spam.
- **Deleted Items**: Mail a member has removed from another folder.

## Who can see and change one

Membership is what grants access: a shared inbox is invisible to anyone who is not a member of it. Only an administrator can create one or change who belongs to it, from **Settings > Inboxes**.

> **Note:**
>
> A conversation living in a shared inbox can also appear in a member's own My work, once it is assigned to them or they subscribe to it. The two are different views of the same mail, not copies of it.