Google Workspace shared mailbox: the options compared

Google Workspace has no mailbox type made for sharing, the way Microsoft 365 has a shared mailbox. You build one from parts: a Google Group used as a Collaborative Inbox, an ordinary account with delegates (which Google now calls a "shared inbox"), an alias, or a shared inbox tool that the address is forwarded to.

Below is what each one does, according to Google's own help pages, which fits a small store's support address, and the one thing Google asks you not to do.

The four options at a glance

Option	Where the email lands	Who replies, and from which address	How you see who is handling what
Google Group as a Collaborative Inbox	In the group, and in each member's inbox if they subscribe	Each member, from their own address unless allowed to post as the group	Take, assign and resolve conversations in Google Groups
Delegated account ("shared inbox")	In the support@ account	Any delegate, from support@; recipients may also see who sent it	Labels and filters; no assignment
Alias	In one person's inbox	Only that person	Nothing beyond their own inbox
Shared inbox tool	In the tool, after forwarding	Whoever is signed in to the tool, from your address	Depends on the tool

The sections below explain each, then the rule that applies to all of them.

Option 1: a Google Group as a Collaborative Inbox

A Google Group has its own address, such as support@yourstore.com, and delivers each message to its members. Turn on the Collaborative Inbox features and the group becomes a small ticket queue. Google lists what members with the right permissions can then do:

• Take a conversation they will answer.
• Assign a conversation to another member, with an optional note that goes into the notification email.
• Mark a conversation as complete, duplicate, or no action needed.
• Search by resolution status or assignee, for example "Not assigned".

How to set it up

1. Make sure Google Groups is on for your organisation. If it isn't available, Google says to ask your administrator to turn on Groups for Business.
2. In Google Groups, create the group and add the people who answer support.
3. Turn on conversation history. Google requires it for Collaborative Inbox: Group settings → Posting policies → Conversation history.
4. Open Group settings, and under "Enable additional Google Groups features" select Collaborative Inbox.
5. Give members the permissions. Taking, assigning and marking a conversation complete need "Who can moderate metadata". For marking a duplicate or "no action needed", Google's pages also name "Who can moderate content", so give both to the people who answer support.

Replying from the group's address

By default a reply comes from the member's own address, which is rarely what a store wants. Two settings change that. In the group's settings, "Who can post as group" decides who can post messages from the group's address instead of their own, and "Default sender" sets the default address for messages sent from the group. Google describes the "Group address" choice as best for groups where many people respond on behalf of the group, "such as product support groups". Members can also add the group as an address in Gmail under Settings → See all settings → Accounts → "Send mail as". Gmail sends a confirmation code to the group, so Google's instructions have the owner set "Who can post" to "Anyone on the web" while the code arrives, then delete the confirmation email from the group and restore the setting.

Good for

A team that wants assignment and a "done" status without paying for anything new. The trade-off is that the work happens in two places: replies in Gmail, assignment in Google Groups.

Option 2: a delegated account, or Google's "shared inbox"

Here support@ is an ordinary Google Workspace account, and the people who answer support are added as delegates. Google is explicit that this is the same thing as its shared inbox: "In Gmail, delegated accounts and shared inboxes are the same."

What a delegate can and can't do, from Google's pages:

• Read, send and delete messages in the account. They can't chat from it or change its password.
• A work account can have up to 1,000 delegates. With typical use, 40 can be in it at the same time.
• A Google Group can be a delegate, and counts as one.
• An alias can't have delegates, because an alias isn't a Google Account.
• Some Gmail features aren't available to delegates, including Smart Compose, Smart Reply, spelling and grammar checks, and Gemini in Gmail.

How to set it up

1. An admin turns on delegation: Admin console → Apps → Google Workspace → Gmail → User settings → Mail delegation → "Let users delegate access to their mailbox to other users in the domain". Changes can take up to 24 hours.
2. In the same setting, the admin chooses what recipients see: the account owner and the delegate who sent the email, or the account owner only.
3. Someone signed in to support@ adds each delegate on a computer: Settings → See all settings → Accounts → "Grant access to your account" → Add another account. It can't be done from the Gmail app.
4. Each delegate accepts the invitation email within a week, then opens support@ from the profile menu in their own Gmail, where it is marked "Delegated".

Google also has an admin flow for this, "Set up a shared email address" on the Admin console home page, for Business Starter, Business Standard and Business Plus. Google says it is being released in phases; if you don't see it, use delegation as above.

Good for

Most small stores. Replies come from support@, everyone sees the same inbox, and nobody shares a password. What Google's delegation pages don't describe is assignment: two people can open the same email and both answer it, so agree a habit, such as a label for "I'm on it".

Option 3: an alias on one person's account

An alias is an extra address on one person's account. Google is clear about its limits: "You can assign an email alias to only one person's account. Only that user can send and receive messages using the alias." A user can have up to 30 aliases at no extra cost.

That makes it a good fit for a one-person store and a poor one for a team. When a second person starts helping, move support@ to a group or a delegated account.

Option 4: forward support@ to a shared inbox tool

The last option keeps the address in Google Workspace and forwards its email to a tool built for team support. Google's admin help distinguishes forwarding (the message goes to the original recipient and to more recipients) from redirecting (the message appears to come straight from the original sender), and both can be set per user or for the organisation.

One warning from the same page: forwarding can affect email authentication. If a forwarding server isn't in your SPF record, or changes the message body, SPF or DKIM checks can fail and messages can be rejected or marked as spam. Check what the tool asks you to add to DNS, and how it sends your replies.

The rule: one Google Account, one person

The shortcut many small teams take is to create support@ as a normal account and share its password. Google's admin help is direct: "Google Accounts are intended for use by only one person." It lists what goes wrong when several people sign in to one account: login challenges, account thresholds, and "the account might be temporarily locked for everyone" if one person can't answer a challenge.

Gmail's own help adds that if several people at an organisation sign in to the same account from different places, Gmail might temporarily lock it. Delegation and groups exist so that each person signs in as themselves.

Which one to choose

Your situation	Use
One person answers everything	An alias, or support@ as your own account
Two to five people, replies must come from support@	A delegated account (Google's shared inbox)
You need to assign emails and mark them done, with no new tools	A Google Group as a Collaborative Inbox, with "post as group" allowed
You want drafts, order details and assignment in one place	A shared inbox tool, with support@ forwarded to it

If you use Microsoft 365 instead, the equivalent is a real shared mailbox: see Microsoft 365 shared mailboxes. If your store runs on Shopify, setting up a Shopify support address covers how the address, Shopify's sender email and your replies fit together.

Where Corresso fits

Corresso is a shared support inbox for small online stores, and it works as option 4. Your mail stays with Google: you forward the support address to Corresso, and replies go out from your own address through your Google account, connected with Connect Google.

Every incoming email gets a draft reply written from documents your store approved, such as your returns policy and shipping page, and each fact in the draft cites the document it came from. A person on your team always reads the draft and presses Send. There is no auto-send. With a Shopify store connected, the customer's orders appear beside the email. See how one email goes from arrival to Send, or see pricing: $75 a month for the whole team.