A shared inbox is where a small team does its support: one address, a few people, and every email answered by hand. ReplyPen writes the first version of each reply in that inbox, so the team spends its time checking answers instead of typing them.
Which kinds of shared address can ReplyPen connect?
ReplyPen connects a mailbox by signing in to it with Google or Microsoft, then puts its Drafts in that mailbox. Whether the whole team sees them depends on how your shared address is set up:
| Shared address | Can ReplyPen connect it? |
|---|---|
| Google Workspace | Yes, when support@ is an account with its own login. Everyone who opens that mailbox sees the Drafts, by signing in or as a Gmail delegate. |
| Microsoft 365 | Yes, when support@ is a mailbox with its own login. Everyone who opens that mailbox sees the Drafts. |
| Alias or forward | Yes, by connecting the mailbox it lands in. Only the owner of that mailbox sees the Drafts. |
| Google Group | Not today. Groups and collaborative inboxes cannot be connected yet. |
| Outlook shared mailbox | Not today, for a Microsoft 365 shared mailbox that people open from their own account. |
If support@ is an alias today, the simplest route to one set of Drafts for the whole team is to give it a mailbox of its own.
What does ReplyPen add to a shared mailbox, and what does it leave alone?
Noise is what makes a team switch an AI tool off in a shared inbox: every stray message is something a colleague has to open and discard. ReplyPen only adds to the thread of an email that needs a reply: the Draft, and under it a short Check note message listing the sources it used, with a link to give feedback. Email it skips gets nothing: no Draft, no note, no label.
Without any Rule, ReplyPen skips:
- newsletters and mailing lists
- automated mail, such as auto-replies and out-of-office messages
- calendar notifications
- mail between colleagues with no customer on it
- short replies that need no answer, like “Thanks, that is all I needed”
- spam
For what is left, a Rule says “never create a Draft” or “always create a Draft” for email that matches a sender address, a domain, words in the subject or body, or a mail header. A shared info@ often needs one or two: never draft for your own shop’s order confirmations, always draft for the domain of your largest customer. More in Rules.
What happens when 40 emails arrive at once?
Each one is handled on its own: skipped, or drafted in its thread. Nobody has to divide the pile before the work can start, and nobody has to paste an email into a chatbot and copy the answer back. The team splits threads the way it already does, with labels, categories or whoever gets there first, and each person opens a thread to a reply that is already written.
How does a support lead know the Drafts are good enough?
Reading every reply your team sends does not scale, so ReplyPen counts what happened to its Drafts. Reports show, week by week, how many Drafts went out as written or with small edits and how many were edited more, and for each edited email you can see what was changed. That tells a lead where the Drafts can be trusted and where they cannot yet.
When one kind of email keeps getting rewritten, the fix is usually knowledge, not people: add the missing answer to your website or help center, or tell ReplyPen what was off with Feedback on the Draft. Teammates’ edits teach it too, so the same correction is not needed twice.
Do you need a helpdesk to run support@ as a team?
Not for drafting. Many small teams run support from the mailbox itself, and ReplyPen fits that: it adds Drafts and changes nothing else about how you work. It does not assign emails, track ticket status or measure response times per person. If your team needs those, a helpdesk does them; note that ReplyPen drafts in Gmail and Outlook, not inside a helpdesk’s own inbox.
Does it cost more with more people on the inbox?
No. ReplyPen is not priced per seat. After the first 7 days, which are free, you pay €0.25 per conversation, however many teammates work from the mailbox. Details are in the pricing section.