This guide covers two features that work hand in hand: custom inboxes (your own saved, filtered views of conversations) and the unread counter (the badge that tells you how much is waiting for you). Read it end to end and you'll be able to shape your inbox so the numbers you see always mean “this needs me”.
Part 1 — Custom inboxes
What is a custom inbox?
A custom inbox is a saved, named, filtered view of your conversations. Instead of scrolling the whole list, you create a view like “Urgent & unassigned” or “My open Telegram chats” and switch to it in one click. A custom inbox never changes the conversations themselves — it only changes which ones you see and (optionally) how their unread counts are calculated.
Custom inboxes can be:
- Personal — visible only to you.
- Shared — visible to your whole team. Only admins and managers can create or edit shared inboxes.
- Project-specific or cross-project — a cross-project inbox can pull conversations from several projects into one view.
Creating a custom inbox
- Open the inbox switcher at the top of the conversation list.
- Choose Create custom inbox.
- Give it a name and an emoji icon.
- Pick your filters (below), optionally set up unread counting, and save.
Filters you can set
- Assignment — Mine, Unassigned, or All.
- Status — any combination of New, Escalating, Processing, Waiting, Resolved, Closed.
- Read state — All, Unread, or Read.
- Priority — Low, Medium, High, Urgent.
- Channel types — Telegram, Telegram group, Web, Email, Helpdesk.
- Specific channels — narrow to individual channels.
- Tags — show only conversations carrying the tags you pick.
- Projects — for a cross-project inbox, choose which projects to include.
Editing, reordering and deleting
Open a custom inbox and use its edit action to change the name, icon, filters or unread settings. You can edit your own personal inboxes; shared inboxes are edited by admins and managers. Drag inboxes to reorder them, and delete any inbox you own (shared inboxes require admin or manager rights).
The default inbox
While editing an inbox, tick “Use as my default inbox” to make it your default. The default inbox:
- is the view Chatonio opens to every time you load the dashboard;
- is saved on your account, so it follows you across reloads and across devices — log in anywhere and it's still your default;
- drives your unread badge (see Part 2).
You can switch to any other inbox at any time during a session. The default is simply where you start and what your badge is based on.
Part 2 — The unread counter
The two badges
There are two kinds of unread number:
- The per-conversation badge on each row — how much is unread in that one conversation.
- The aggregate badge — the single number on the sidebar Inbox icon and in the browser tab, plus the per-tab and per-project counters. It sums up the conversations that need you.
What counts by default
Out of the box, the aggregate badge counts conversations in Processing, Escalating and Waiting. It deliberately excludes New conversations — those are still being handled by the AI, so they don't need a human yet — and it never counts Resolved or Closed conversations. Internal Team chats are counted separately (see below). New conversations still show their own per-row badge; they just don't inflate your headline number.
Choosing what “unread” means (per status)
This is the powerful part. Inside a custom inbox, the Unread counting section lets you choose, for each status, what the number should measure:
| Option | What the number counts |
|---|---|
| Default (system setting) | Inherit the standard behaviour for that status. |
| All unread | Every message you personally haven't read yet. |
| Since last AI or operator reply | Customer messages waiting for any reply (human or AI). |
| Since last AI reply | Customer messages since the AI last responded. |
| Since last operator reply | Customer messages waiting for a human reply — an AI auto-reply does not clear it. |
| Since my last message | Customer messages since you last replied. |
| Don't count | Hide the count for this status entirely. |
Each status also has a “Badge” checkbox that decides whether it contributes to your aggregate badge. (When you pick Don't count, that checkbox switches off automatically.)
How counting works with your default inbox
Your default inbox drives the badge on the sidebar Inbox icon and in the browser tab — and that badge is that inbox's own number. Both halves of the inbox apply: its filters (projects, channels, assignment, tags, priority) decide which conversations are counted, and its unread settings decide what counts as unread in each of them. So the number always describes the view that the Inbox link actually opens. (An inbox filtered to Read conversations has nothing outstanding by definition, so its badge stays at 0.)
Statuses work the same way. If you never tick the Badge boxes yourself, the badge simply follows your Status filter — an inbox that lists only Escalating and Processing counts only those. Tick the boxes when you want the two to differ deliberately: for example, to keep New conversations visible in the list without letting them inflate your number.
One consequence worth knowing: the per-project counters — the numbers in the project switcher and on the Clients and Team tabs — are not narrowed by your default inbox, because you also see them while browsing other inboxes and All projects. So if your default inbox is narrower than the projects you belong to, your sidebar badge will be smaller than those numbers add up to. That is expected rather than a mismatch: the sidebar answers “how much is waiting in my inbox”, while the per-project numbers answer “how much is waiting in each project”.
Mark as read & mark as unread
- Opening a conversation, or “Mark as read”, drops its count to 0 — under any counting option — until the next customer message arrives.
- “Mark as unread” flags a conversation so it always shows as unread (at least 1), even on a status you've set to Don't count. Use it to keep something on your radar.
Both are personal: reading or flagging a conversation only affects your badge. A teammate who hasn't opened it — or the next shift — still sees it, so nothing slips through the cracks on a handover.
Team (internal) chats
Internal team conversations always use the classic behaviour: they show all real unread messages, regardless of the options above, and they have their own Team tab counter, separate from your client counts.
💡 Want a ready-made setup? See The optimized workflow inbox for a recommended, step-by-step configuration.
Recipes
- “Awaiting a human reply” — set Processing and Waiting to Since last operator reply, and New to Don't count. Your badge now shows exactly how many customers are waiting on a person.
- “Everything I haven't read” — set every status to All unread. Classic, personal read-tracking.
- “Triage queue” — filter Assignment = Unassigned and count Since last AI or operator reply, so you see what's genuinely waiting to be picked up.
FAQ
I opened a chat and its number disappeared — is that a bug?
No. Opening a conversation marks it read for you, so its count drops to 0 until the customer writes again. To deliberately keep it flagged, use Mark as unread.
My colleague sees a count on a chat that I don't. Why?
Unread is tracked per operator. If you've read it and they haven't, you see 0 and they see the count. This is intentional — it keeps shift handovers safe.
I set my default inbox to one project. Are my other projects still counted?
Yes. A default inbox's counting rules apply across all your projects; its scope only changes which conversations the list shows, never what is counted.
Does “Mark as unread” still work if my inbox hides read conversations?
Yes. Mark as unread always forces the conversation to show as unread (at least 1), regardless of the counting option or a Don't count setting.