Cove

Shared inbox

One inbox for chat, help, and team workflows

The visitor writes in the widget. The thread is a conversation with an owner, a transcript, and a contact. Email, SMS, WhatsApp, Telegram, Messenger, Instagram, and phone callbacks land in the same queue when you finish their Connect screens — not a full Crisp channel suite. Help and workflows sit on the same desk.

Why a queue beats a shared mailbox

Two agents answering the same visitor is how you lose the customer.

Email aliases and Gmail labels were never designed for live chat. A shared inbox gives the thread an owner, keeps notes off the customer, and lets you snooze or resolve without inventing a ticket object. Cove’s inbox is built for the website messenger first. Email is a mailbox you forward to — not the only queue.

  • One owner on every thread

    Assign a person so the desk is not a free-for-all. Routing can put a name on inbound by VIP tag, working hours, or a People segment when you enable the rules.

  • Notes the visitor never sees

    Internal notes stay on the team. Mentions and handoffs happen beside the transcript, not in a side Slack that loses the history.

  • Macros, then a human send

    /hours from the composer. Optional assign, tag, or pending/resolved on insert. A person still sends. That is what ships as macros — not Intercom Series.

  • Snooze, resolve, then CSAT

    Hide a thread until later. Resolve ends that widget thread and can ask for 1–5. A new message is a new conversation. Spam is a state, not a guess.

How the desk runs

Own it, type in view, resolve.

Conversation states, not a Zendesk ticket product. Open, pending, resolved, spam, plus a Snoozed filter. Website chat is the live channel. Customers can open tickets from an email magic-link portal (about 30 minutes) — not a signed-in account product. Public replies email via Resend when the contact has a real address. Inbound mail lands at {slug}@inbound.coveinbox.co after Email is connected and MX is live — not attachments, not quote-strip.

  1. 01

    Assign

    A name on the thread. Routing rules can do that on inbound when you enable them — VIP tag, after hours, or a People segment. Published workflows can greet and assign on new conversation, hours, keyword, resolve/reopen, or unassigned — not an AI-intent bot.

  2. 02

    Type in view

    Two operators see who is typing. That is the control that ships — collision awareness, not a hard take-over lock. Assign still gives an owner when the desk is empty.

  3. 03

    Resolve, then CSAT

    Resolve ends that widget thread and can ask for a rating. After that, a new message is a new conversation. Mark spam when it is spam.

One conversation. Typing is visible, so two people do not send at once.
One queue. An owner. Resolve ends that visitor thread.

Views, bulk, and SLA

The queue you actually work. Not a Zendesk views product and not a custom report builder.

  1. 01

    Saved views

    Mine and Unassigned ship. Save up to 24 custom views: state, assignee, tag, search. Not team inboxes. Saved views.

  2. 02

    Bulk

    Select threads, then assign, tag, resolve, or spam. Tags must exist in Settings first.

  3. 03

    SLA → Analytics

    First-reply and resolve clocks in Settings → Hours. Inbox shows on time, at risk, or late. Analytics is volume, SLA hit, CSAT, channel mix, teammate load, and a CSV. SLA clocks.

What else sits on the same desk

WhatsApp, SMS, and phone callbacks in the same queue when connected. A visitor map from recent country. Highlight on page from the thread — a banner, not screen share. Inbox as a PWA. Article drafts and live workflows. A magic-link ticket portal and SLA clocks. Switch the messenger; connect the rest in Settings.

Related: quick replies, routing, translation, Widget studio.

Migration, branding, and “we already have Zendesk”

Migration

You paste a snippet and take the next chat. You do not import ticket fields, SLA policies, or a phone number. If that migration story is the job, you are buying a suite — not Cove.

We already have Zendesk

Keep Zendesk if tickets and process are the product. Cove is a conversation queue behind a website messenger. There is no Zendesk-style signed-in account portal — Cove’s ticket portal is an email magic link (about 30 minutes). Read Cove versus Zendesk.

Price

You pay for the workspace. Conversations are unlimited. Extra seats are $6 a month on Mini and up. See pricing.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Mailbox versus inbox, WhatsApp honesty, Zendesk, and how we bill the desk.

A shared mailbox is inbound email only. This inbox is built for the website widget first, then the channels you connect. Email inbound is a Cove receive address you forward to — customer replies land on the same thread. Public replies send via Resend.

Yes if the job is a branded messenger plus a conversation queue — with tickets, SLAs, and a customer portal included. Switch to Cove. Start at signup.

Yes when you connect Cloud API credentials. The same is true for SMS, Telegram, Messenger, Instagram, email inbound, and phone callbacks. See integrations.

Typing is visible on the thread so two agents see each other. Assign still gives the conversation an owner when the desk is empty.

No. You pay for the workspace. Conversations are unlimited. Extra seats are $6 a month on Mini and up. See pricing.

Yes. Mine and Unassigned are built in. Save up to 24 custom views. See saved views.

Blog

Macros, snooze, and the daily desk

Take the first chat from a real queue.

Fourteen-day trial. Assign, notes, macros, snooze, resolve. Workspace price. Conversations unlimited.