A complete overview of what they are, how they work, and why they matter
As a Ruut Agent, one of the most important parts of your workflow is how customer messages arrive, where you find them, and how you respond. That’s where Inboxes & Channels come in.
In Ruut:
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Channels are the places customers reach out from — like email, WhatsApp, live chat, Instagram, SMS, and more.
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Inboxes are the spaces inside Ruut where messages from those channels are collected, organized, and routed to you and your team.
Together, channels and inboxes make up your customer engagement suite — the foundation of how Ruut connects your team to customers in real time.
What Are Channels in Ruut?
A channel is any communication platform customers use to message your business.
Customers today message in all kinds of places — not just email anymore. Ruut lets you connect all of these so your team sees everything in one place.
Here are some examples of channels you can connect in Ruut:
• Email
• Website live chat widget
• Facebook Messenger
• Instagram DMs
• WhatsApp
• SMS / Text messaging
• Mobile app chat SDK
• API / custom integrations
Each of these is a channel — a source of conversations. Once connected, messages from those sources will flow into Ruut.
What Are Inboxes in Ruut?
An Inbox in Ruut is like a sorting tray where messages from one or more channels land — organized, visible, and ready for agents to act on.
You can think of an inbox as a workspace view for conversations. It holds messages, related contact info, labels, assignments, and conversation history.
Inboxes help you:
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See all new messages that need replies
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Filter conversations by team, label, channel, or status
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Assign messages to yourself or other agents
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Track what’s been resolved and what’s still open
For example:
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A “Support Inbox” might collect messages from email, live chat, and WhatsApp
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A “Sales Inbox” might bring in leads from a web form and Instagram
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A “Billing Inbox” could receive email and SMS requests
You can customize your inboxes to match your team structure and business needs.
How Channels and Inboxes Work Together
Here’s the key idea:
Channels are the doors customers use to talk to you.
Inboxes are the desks where your team picks up those conversations.
When you connect a channel in Ruut:
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Ruut listens for new messages from that source.
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Incoming messages are pulled into an inbox.
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From the inbox, agents see, reply, assign, tag, and resolve conversations.
You can connect multiple channels to the same inbox, or set up separate inboxes per channel — depending on how you want to organize work.
Example:
If customers message about both sales and support on WhatsApp, you could choose to have WhatsApp messages go into a shared inbox for both teams — or split them via workflows and automation into separate Sales and Support inboxes.
Why Inboxes & Channels Matter
1. Centralized customer conversations
Customers don’t care about platforms — they just want answers. Without a unified inbox, your team would have to check email, WhatsApp, IG, and web chat separately. Ruut brings them all into one interface.
2. Faster responses
Agents see all new messages in Ruut’s unified inbox view. No logging in and out of different apps. This speeds up first replies and gets customers help faster.
3. Better organization & routing
Inboxes let you group conversations logically — by team, topic, priority, or channel type. This ensures the right agent sees the right message at the right time.
4. Collaboration and context
When messages from different channels land in Ruut, you get:
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full conversation history
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contact information
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labels
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private team notes
All in one place — so agents don’t need to guess what happened before.
5. Reporting & insights
Ruut can track performance by inbox and by channel:
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Which channel gets the most messages?
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Which inbox has the fastest replies?
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Where are customers waiting longest?
These insights help you improve your support strategy.