---
title: "Shared mailbox"
canonical: https://replypen.com/glossary/shared-mailbox
description: "A shared mailbox is one email address, such as support@ or hello@, that several people can read and answer from."
question: "What is a shared mailbox?"
author: "ReplyPen team"
published: 2026-09-30
operator: ProBackup BV (Hasselt, Belgium)
---

# What is a shared mailbox?

A shared mailbox is one email address, such as support@ or hello@, that several people can read and answer from. Customers write to a single address, and whoever is on duty replies from it, so the conversation stays in one place even when the person answering changes.

In Gmail it is usually a Google Group or a delegated account; in Outlook and Microsoft 365 it is a
mailbox that several users are given access to. The address belongs to the business, not to one
person, so it survives holidays and staff changes.

## Why it matters

A shared mailbox is the simplest way to run support without buying a helpdesk. The catch is
coordination: two people can answer the same email, or each can assume the other did. Small teams
handle this with labels or folders ("mine", "waiting on customer"), a habit of replying from the
thread, and one agreed tone so replies sound like one business.

## An example

A shop sends every order question to support@shop.com. Two people share the inbox: one mornings,
one afternoons. Each opens the thread, sees the full history, and replies from the same address.

**In ReplyPen:** You can connect a shared address like support@ as your mailbox; today that is one mailbox with one
voice per account. See [how to run support@ from Gmail](https://replypen.com/blog/support-email-in-gmail.md).

## Related

- [Email triage](https://replypen.com/glossary/email-triage.md): Email triage is sorting incoming email before anyone answers it: deciding what needs a reply, what can wait, what goes to someone else and what needs no action at all.
- [First response time](https://replypen.com/glossary/first-response-time.md): First response time is how long a customer waits between sending an email and getting the first reply from a person at your business.
- [Draft](https://replypen.com/glossary/draft.md): In ReplyPen, a Draft is the ready-to-send reply ReplyPen writes for a customer email that needs an answer.