Inbox
The Inbox lets your team send and receive private messages with the people in your church: guests, attendees and members. Each person has one conversation with your church, shared by your whole team: if two of you message the same guest, you both write into the same thread, and each message shows who sent it. Messaging a whole audience at once is a separate, admin-only tool: Announcements, part of Plus and Pro.
Admins always have the Inbox. Anybody else on your team gets it through the Inbox permission on their role, so a greeter or a follow-up volunteer can read and answer guests without being an admin. Members and guests see their side of the conversation in the Member Portal.
:::note Companion and up The Inbox is part of Companion, Plus and Pro. See Plans. :::
Access the Inbox
Click the Inbox icon in the top right of the Passport navigation bar. A badge on the icon shows how many unread messages are waiting. In the Passport app, the same conversations are on the Inbox tab of Team View.
The Inbox opens in a two-panel view:
- Left panel — your list of conversations
- Right panel — the selected conversation thread
Start a new conversation
- Click the + button at the top of the conversation list.
- In the To field, start typing a person's name. Select them from the list that appears.
- Type your opening message in the First message field.
- Click Send.
The conversation appears in your list and the person receives the message in their portal.
If the person already has a conversation with your church, your message goes into that conversation, not a new one. The same happens when you press Message on a guest card or a profile: the Inbox opens their existing conversation, however long ago it last moved.
You need at least two characters before names appear in the search results.
Reply to a message
- Click any conversation in the left panel to open it.
- Read the thread. Messages from your team appear on the right, each with the name of whoever sent it, or You for your own. Messages from the person appear on the left in grey. Messages Passport sent automatically carry the Passport mark.
- Type your reply in the message field at the bottom.
- Press Enter to send, or press Shift + Enter to start a new line.
What a conversation holds
A conversation holds your team's messages, the person's replies, and the guest journey texts and emails Passport sent them, in the order they happened.
Other messages Passport sends do not appear in the conversation: announcements, service reminders, automations and similar. Those are on the person's profile timeline.
Find a conversation
Type a person's name in the Search by name… bar at the top of the conversation list. The list filters as you type.
The list shows your most recent conversations first. Search covers the conversations already on screen, so to find someone further back, click Load older conversations at the bottom of the list. In a long conversation, click Load earlier messages at the top of the thread to see what came before.
See who is waiting on a reply
Above the conversation list, All shows every conversation, newest first. Awaiting reply shows only the people waiting on an answer from your team, longest wait first, with how long each has waited and the message that needs the answer. The count beside it covers every conversation, not only the ones on screen.
A conversation is waiting on a reply when the person has written since anybody on your team last did. It stays that way until somebody on your team replies. Reading it is not enough, and guest journey texts Passport sent on its own do not count as an answer. Reactions such as "Loved …" or "Liked …" don't need an answer, so they never add a conversation here, and keywords like STOP and HELP are answered for you.
No reply needed
Some messages want no answer: "Thank you, see you tomorrow". Open the conversation and press No reply needed under the person's name. It comes off Awaiting reply and off Today's Replies, and the conversation says who marked it. Press Undo to put it back. If the person writes again, the conversation is waiting on a reply again. You can also press No reply needed on a row in Today's Replies.
Open a person's profile from a conversation
Inside any conversation, click the person's name at the top of the message panel. Passport takes you directly to that person's profile page.
Conversation list details
Each conversation in the list shows:
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| Name and avatar initial | The person you are messaging |
| Message preview | The last message sent, prefixed with You: if you sent it, or a colleague's first name if they did |
| Relative time | When the last message was sent (e.g., "5m ago") |
| Person type | Visitor, attendee, or member |
| Unread badge | Number of unread messages from the person |
Who can use the Inbox
| Who | Read and reply | Message somebody new | Message everyone at once |
|---|---|---|---|
| Admins | Yes | Yes | Yes, from Announcements (Plus and Pro) |
| Team members whose role has Start conversations | Yes | Yes | No |
| Team members whose role has Inbox only | Yes | No | No |
| Team members whose role has Announcements | No | No | Yes |
| Team members without any of these | No | No | No |
| Members and guests, in the portal | Their own conversation | No | No |
These permissions are under Communications in Admin → Settings → Roles & permissions. Start conversations includes the Inbox: somebody who starts a conversation can read the reply. Message wording lets a role edit the wording of reminders and notices. On a new church, the starter Greeter role has Inbox and Start conversations.
The Inbox icon, the + button and every Message button appear only for people who can use them.
When you reply, the composer says how the message will reach the person: by text, or by email when they can't be texted.
Frequently asked questions
Can a person message us first? Yes. Portal users can initiate a conversation with their church staff. When they do, it appears in your Inbox immediately.
Is the Inbox shared between staff? Yes. Everybody who can open the Inbox sees the same conversations, one per person, so whoever is free can pick up a reply. Opening a conversation marks it read for everyone, but it stays under Awaiting reply until somebody answers.
Can I delete a conversation? Not at this time. Conversations remain in the list until the feature adds archive or delete support.
What if the person's name doesn't appear when I search? The person must already have a record in Passport. If they are not in the directory, add them first and then start a conversation.
Next steps
- See who needs a message — The Guests hub surfaces guests nobody has contacted.
- Send the routine ones automatically — Guest Journeys.
- What members can do — Members write to you with Message the church; see the Member Portal.