How does the team inbox work, and who approves outgoing mail?
Last verified October 18, 2026
Your team claims one @robolyst.org address, and every member with inbox access reads and answers that mail from the Inbox page. Members who can only draft submit their mail for approval, and anyone with the "Approve drafted mail" permission sends it or sends it back.
You need: Verified FTC team; "Team settings" access to claim the address; inbox permissions to read or send
Claim the address
Each team gets one shared address on robolyst.org. Only verified FTC teams can claim one, so nobody takes a handle that belongs to another team.
- Go to Inbox in the team portal sidebar (
/team-management/inbox). - If your team isn't verified yet, click Verify in Team Settings first.
- Type a Handle. The hint under it shows the full address, like
handle@robolyst.org. - Set Name on outgoing mail. This is what recipients see as the sender, and it defaults to your team name.
- Click Claim address.
Handles are unique and stay yours for good, so keep it short and clearly your team. Claiming needs the permission to manage team settings.
Reading and answering mail
Anything sent to the address lands in Inbox. Members who can read the inbox get a notification when new mail arrives (spam and auto-replies stay quiet). The folder list on the left has Inbox, Starred, Snoozed, Closed, All, Spam and Trash, plus Awaiting approval once something is waiting.
Open a thread and click Reply under the message you're answering. Every reply goes out from the team address. Inside a thread you can Snooze it, Assign it to a member, or leave an Internal note that only your team sees.
When you send, you get 12 seconds to undo. Send later schedules a message up to a year ahead. Each inbox can send to 250 recipients a day.
Who can do what
Inbox access is split across seven permissions, set on each role under team settings.
| Permission | What it allows |
|---|---|
| Read the shared inbox | Read mail and mark it read or unread |
| Draft inbox replies | Write replies and new mail that wait for approval |
| Send from the shared inbox | Send and schedule mail without approval |
| Approve drafted mail | Send or reject mail other members drafted |
| Triage inbox threads | Tag, star, snooze, close and annotate threads |
| Assign inbox threads | Put a thread on a specific member |
| Manage the shared inbox | Spam, delete, merge and split threads, plus signature, templates, tags, filing rules and blocked senders |
How approval works
If you can draft but not send, the send button reads Submit for approval. Your message waits in the Awaiting approval folder with a note that it won't go out until someone approves it.
Anyone with "Approve drafted mail" opens the thread and picks one:
- Approve & send sends it, with the usual 12-second undo. If the draft was scheduled for later, it still goes at that time.
- Send back returns it to the author with your answer to What needs changing?
Until someone decides, the author can click Withdraw and keep editing. Approvers don't get a separate alert for new drafts, so check the Awaiting approval folder.
Inbox settings
The settings icon at the top of the inbox (shown to members who can manage it) opens Inbox settings: Signature, Tags, Filing rules, Templates and Blocked senders.