How to Use GoHighLevel Conversations: Complete Inbox Guide

What the Conversations inbox is

Most service businesses communicate with leads and customers across 4 to 6 different channels: a business phone number, a personal mobile, email, Facebook Messenger, maybe Instagram and Google Business messages. Before GoHighLevel, tracking the full conversation history of a single contact meant checking 4 to 6 different places. A lead who texted your business number and then emailed and then messaged on Facebook had three separate conversation threads in three separate apps.

The GHL Conversations inbox collapses all of this into one thread per contact. Every SMS, email and social message to or from a contact appears chronologically in their thread. When a team member opens a contact conversation, they see the complete communication history regardless of channel, giving full context for the current interaction without needing to check anything else.

Automated messages sent by your workflows also appear in the conversation thread. When GHL sends the missed call text-back or the estimate follow-up SMS, those messages appear in the contact's thread alongside your manual replies. The thread is the complete record of every touchpoint with that contact.

Step 1: Connect your channels

The Conversations inbox only shows messages from channels you have connected. Go to Settings, then Integrations to connect each channel.

Phone and SMS: Add a GHL phone number under Settings, then Phone Numbers. Once connected, inbound calls and SMS to that number appear in Conversations. All automated SMS from your workflows send from this number.

Email: Connect your sending domain under Settings, then Email Services. Inbound emails to your connected address and outbound emails sent from Conversations both use your domain rather than a shared GHL address.

Facebook: Connect your Facebook Business page under Settings, then Integrations, then Facebook. Facebook Messenger messages from contacts appear in the inbox immediately after connection.

Google Business Profile: Connect your GBP under Settings, then Integrations, then Google My Business. Messages sent through your GBP listing appear in the inbox. This is particularly valuable for service businesses because many customers message directly through Google Maps before calling.

Instagram: Connect through the same Facebook integration. Instagram DMs from contacts appear in the inbox alongside Facebook messages.

Step 2: Navigate the inbox

Open Conversations from the left sidebar. The left panel shows a list of all active conversation threads sorted by most recent activity. Each thread shows the contact name, the last message preview, the time of the last message and which channel the last message came through.

Unread conversations appear with a blue dot. Conversations assigned to you appear with your avatar. Conversations with no response from your team appear with a different indicator so you can prioritise them quickly.

Click any thread to open it in the centre panel. The conversation history appears chronologically from oldest at the top to newest at the bottom. Each message shows the channel it came through (SMS icon, email icon, Facebook icon) and whether it was inbound (from the contact) or outbound (from your team or from an automated workflow).

The right panel shows the contact's full record: their name, phone, email, tags, pipeline stage and associated notes. You can update any contact detail, add tags, change pipeline stage or create tasks directly from this panel without leaving the conversation. This means you can respond to a message and update the contact's CRM record simultaneously without switching screens.

Step 3: Send messages from the inbox

The reply box sits at the bottom of the conversation thread. Type your message and use the channel selector to choose how to send it: SMS, email or whichever social channel the contact last used. GHL defaults to the most recent channel used in the conversation.

For SMS, keep messages under 160 characters to avoid message splitting. Use the contact's name in the opening to make the message feel personal rather than generic. For email, the reply box expands and gives you a subject line field plus basic formatting options.

Use the Templates button in the reply box to insert a pre-written template. Templates are message drafts you save under Settings, then Templates, for common responses your team sends repeatedly. A template for "estimate sent confirmation" or "booking confirmation for tomorrow" saves time and ensures consistent wording across team members.

The AI Reply button (if AI Employees is enabled) suggests a response based on the contact's message and your business knowledge base. Review any AI suggestion before sending. The AI handles routine questions well but complex or sensitive conversations always need human review before the message goes out.

Step 4: Assign and manage conversations

In a team setting, assigning conversations to specific team members prevents the same lead from being responded to by multiple people simultaneously or being missed because everyone assumed someone else handled it.

Open any conversation and click the Assignee field in the right panel. Select the team member responsible for this contact. They receive a notification that the conversation has been assigned to them. The conversation now appears in their Assigned to Me filter view so they can find their queue without searching through all conversations.

Build a workflow that automatically assigns new contacts from specific sources to the right team member. A workflow triggered by Tag Added, tag "facebook lead," can automatically assign the contact to your dedicated lead follow-up team member. This removes the manual step of assigning inbound leads and ensures no new conversation sits unassigned.

Step 5: Use filters to manage volume

At scale, the Conversations inbox receives too many threads to manage without filtering. Use the filter options at the top of the left panel to focus on the conversations that need attention.

Key filters to use regularly: Unread shows only conversations with messages you have not read yet, the most urgent daily view. Assigned to Me shows only your assigned conversations, the right view for team members managing their own queue. No Response shows conversations where the contact has sent a message but your team has not replied, the most important filter for catching missed messages. Open versus All filters between active conversations and the complete archive.

For team leaders, the All filter with the assignee column visible gives a complete picture of which team members have pending conversations and which are keeping up with their queue. Use this view for daily team check-ins to ensure no lead is waiting more than a few hours for a response.

Step 6: Connect automations to conversation events

Workflows can trigger based on conversation events. When a contact replies to an automated SMS, a trigger fires. You can use this trigger to stop the current automation sequence, notify a team member and assign the conversation for manual follow-up.

The most important automation to connect to the Conversations inbox is the inbound message notification. Build a workflow: Trigger is Inbound Message, filter to your GHL phone number. Action is Internal Notification via email or SMS to your team member with the contact's name and a link to the conversation. This ensures your team is alerted immediately to new inbound messages rather than discovering them when they next check the inbox.

For the missed call text-back, the moment the contact replies to the automated SMS, the reply appears in Conversations and GHL marks the conversation as requiring attention. Build the workflow stop condition so the automated sequence ends the moment a reply arrives, preventing further automated messages going out after a real conversation has started. See our workflow examples guide for the complete stop condition setup.

Inbox best practices for teams

Set a response time standard and enforce it through the No Response filter. Most service businesses aim to respond to any new inbound message within 30 minutes during business hours. Check the No Response filter at the start, middle and end of each business day as a minimum.

Use the Notes section on the contact record to log context from phone calls that happened outside the Conversations inbox. A note saying "Called back, agreed to send a revised estimate by Friday" gives any team member who picks up the thread full context without needing to ask the contact to repeat themselves.

Archive conversations that are genuinely complete. A closed job where all communication is finished should be marked as closed to keep the active inbox manageable. Searching archived conversations is easy if a contact re-engages in the future. Keeping everything in the active inbox makes it harder to focus on conversations that actually need attention today.