Email sharing configuration

Missive is flexible as it lets you consume private emails alongside ones shared with your team. This guide will demonstrate all the different possible setups with some common scenarios, so you can find the perfect settings for your use case.

Supported configurations

From dedicated email accounts to Google Groups, Missive adapts to all kinds of shared email setups. It will help you collaborate around emails in a frictionless way.

To get started, open your organization settings and select Message sharing:

When to use shared accounts?

The easiest way to collaborate in Missive is to directly share an email account. You can share an account with specific individuals, a team, or everyone in your organization. They are easy to setup.

Once people have access to an account, they start receiving the new emails. They can also browse the account history, use its labels, and reply to emails using the account email address and aliases.

When to use shared addresses?

If you prefer not to give access to all emails received in an account, you should use shared addresses. It lets you share emails sent to specific To (or Cc) addresses only. This is useful when using a central inbox like admin@company.com with various aliases (support@company.com, help@company.com) directed to different teams.

Google Groups

Shared addresses are what you need to set up if you are already sharing emails using Google Groups. For more details on configuring Google Groups, see this dedicated guide.

Forwarding email accounts

Shared addresses are what you need to set up if you are using email forwarding at your domain registrar, like:

• GoDaddy forwading email accounts
• Gandi Mail forwarding addresses
• Dreamhost forward only email addresses
• cPanel forwarders

Common scenarios and how to achieve them

I want to share all emails received in an email account

You should configure a shared account. People you share it with will have access to all email labels / folders and they will be able to send emails using the account address and its aliases.

1. Open your Accounts settings, click Add account and follow the steps.
2. Select Yes, this is a shared account.
3. Choose the Team Inbox option (most common) or Inbox. Read about the differences.

I want to share only emails sent to a specific alias received in a personal/private email account

Let’s say you have an email account admin@acme.com and you don’t want to share all emails in it. You only want to share the emails sent to help@acme.com which is an alias of the admin@acme.com account.

1. Open your Accounts settings, click Add account, and choose personal account.
2. Complete the steps to connect admin@acme.com.
3. Open your Organizations > Message sharing settings.
4. Click Add shared address and type “help@acme.com”.
5. Choose the Team Inbox option (most common) or Inbox. Read about the differences.

I want to collaborate around emails sent to multiple people through a Google Group

Let’s say help@acme.com is a Google Group that forwards emails to everyone in your team: danielle@acme.com, etienne@acme.com, lucy@acme.com, etc.

1. Each user imports a personal email account, the one where they receive the Google Group forwards.
2. Open your Organizations > Message sharing settings.
3. Click Add shared address and type “help@acme.com”.
4. You don’t have to select anyone to auto-share emails with, because users already receive these emails in their personal account. You will receive a validation email with a link you must click.
5. Each user adds help@acme.com as an alias on their personal account, assuming they want to send emails From: help@acme.com.

I don’t want to automatically share emails, I just want to collaborate on some of them

1. Mention your teammates in any private conversation to give them access to it. You can always remove someone’s access later on.

I want most of my emails to stay private, but I want to share some of them automatically.

Let’s say you have an email account ceo@acme.com that you mostly want to keep private, but you do want to share all emails received from vendor@company.com automatically.

1. Open your Accounts settings, click Add account, and choose personal account.
2. Complete the steps to connect ceo@acme.com.
3. Open your Rules settings.
4. Create a personal incoming email rule.
5. Add a condition like “From is vendor@company.com”
6. Set an action such as Move to team inbox or Assign user(s), whichever fits your use case best.

You can also, for example, let an executive assistant use any of your aliases to reply as yourself.

I want to automatically collaborate on emails sent to both me and a teammate

Let’s say claire@acme.com and hubert@acme.com want to automatically collaborate if someone sends an email like:

1. Each user imports their email account as a personal account.
2. Open your Organizations > Message sharing settings.
3. Add shared addresses for both “claire@acme.com” and “hubert@acme.com”.
4. Don’t select anyone to auto-share emails with. This way, only emails sent to both Claire and Hubert will be shared between the two.
5. Each user will receive a validation email with a link they must click.

Last updated on July 29, 2021