# Assign a conversation

Give a conversation in a shared inbox to one teammate, so everyone can see who owns it.

In this guide you'll give a customer's conversation to the teammate who should answer it, then check that it has landed with them. Until a conversation is assigned, everyone in the inbox can see it and nobody is responsible for it. Assigning fixes that: one name goes on it, and the rest of the team can leave it alone.

> **Before you start:**
>
> You're a member of the shared inbox the conversation is in. You don't need any other permission: anyone who can open a conversation can assign it.

1. **Unassigned tab**: New mail waits here with nobody's name on it.
2. **Open it**: Check it's the right request.
3. **Assign**: Choose the teammate.
4. **Assigned tab**: It moves across, and your teammate gets a notification.

## Assign it

- In the sidebar, under **Shared inboxes**, select the inbox (for example **Service Desk**) to expand it, then select **Inbox**. It opens on the **Unassigned** tab, which lists everything nobody has taken yet.
- Select the conversation. It opens in the reading pane on the right.
- Check the sender, the subject and the message before you go on, so you're handing over the request you mean to.
- At the top right of the conversation, select **Assign**. A list of teammates opens with you at the top, marked *(you)*.

  ![A conversation titled Callout request - chiller not holding temperature, from Yvonne Braithwaite in the Service Desk inbox. The Assign button at the top right is open, showing a Search users box above a list that starts with Eleanor Whitfield (you), followed by Callum Aitken, Dermot Lynch, Graham Whitfield, Nadia Osei and Priya Raithatha.](https://www.neuracrm.com/help/teamemail/shared-inboxes/assign-picker.png)
- Select the teammate. For a long list, enter part of their name in **Search users** first.

## How you know it worked

TeamEmail doesn't show a confirmation message. Look at the conversation instead:

![The same chiller conversation after assigning. The Assign button now reads Nadia Osei with her initials, a green NO avatar has joined the participants beside the Service Desk badge, and a line at the foot of the timeline reads Assigned to Nadia Osei by You.](https://www.neuracrm.com/help/teamemail/shared-inboxes/assign-assigned.png)

*The button carries the new owner's name, and the timeline records who assigned it and when.*

- The **Assign** button now shows your teammate's name.
- Their avatar appears beside the inbox badge, because they now follow the conversation.
- A line at the bottom of the conversation reads **Assigned to** *name* **by You**.
- The conversation leaves the **Unassigned** tab and is counted under **Assigned**. The two counts change by one as it moves.

**You're done when** the button shows your teammate's name and the conversation is listed on the **Assigned** tab.

## What your teammate sees

The conversation appears in their **Assigned to me** list, under **My work**, and they get a notification saying you assigned it to them. They don't need to go looking in the shared inbox.

Assigning also brings a parked conversation back to life. If it was waiting, snoozed or done, assigning it reopens it, so the new owner sees it as work to do.

## Change or remove the owner

Select the button showing the current owner's name to open the same list.

- **Reassign it** by selecting someone else. The previous owner stops following it, so it leaves their My work.
- **Take it yourself** by selecting your own name, at the top of the list.
- **Put it back in the queue** by selecting **Unassign**, at the top of the list. It returns to the **Unassigned** tab for anyone to pick up.

## If something doesn't look right

**The conversation vanished from the list after you assigned it.** It moved to the **Assigned** tab, which is where it belongs now. It stays open in the reading pane until you select something else.

**The person you want isn't in the list.** The list only includes people who use TeamEmail. Ask a TeamEmail administrator to give them access, or to add them to the inbox.

**You're asked to share the conversation.** You picked someone who isn't a member of this inbox. Select **Share** to give them this one conversation, including its earlier and future messages, and nothing else in the inbox. Select **Cancel** to leave the owner as it was.

## Continue with

- [Add an internal note](https://www.neuracrm.com/teamemail/help-docs/shared-inboxes/add-an-internal-note): Brief the new owner with anything they need to know.