Your inbox in dialnote brings every customer interaction into one place. Calls, SMS messages, notes, and AI summaries all appear in a unified timeline, so you don't have to jump between apps to see what's happening with each contact.
How the Inbox Works#
The inbox uses a three-column layout. Your conversation list sits on the left, the message timeline fills the center, and contact details appear on the right. Each phone number in your workspace gets its own inbox—click one in the sidebar to see all conversations linked to that number.
A conversation groups together every interaction with a single contact: calls, text messages, and internal notes your team adds. The conversation list shows previews of recent activity, so you can quickly scan through to find who needs attention. Unread conversations display a badge, and you can filter to focus on what matters most.
Real-time updates
dialnote updates your inbox in real time. When a call comes in, a message arrives, or a teammate adds a note, you'll see it instantly without refreshing.
Filtering Conversations#
Three filter tabs sit at the top of your conversation list:
- All — Every conversation linked to this number
- Unread — Conversations with new activity you haven't viewed yet
- Read — Conversations you've already opened
A fourth Blocked tab appears once this inbox has a conversation with a blocked number, and stays hidden until then. Blocked threads drop out of All, Unread, and Read, so they don't clutter your triage. See Blocking Numbers.
Opening a conversation marks it read automatically, so the Unread tab stays a clean to-do list. Click the search icon next to the tabs to find a conversation by contact name, phone number, company, or the text of messages, notes, and call transcripts.
The Conversation Timeline#
Click any conversation to see its full history in the center panel. The timeline shows everything in chronological order:
- Calls — Each call appears with duration, direction (inbound or outbound), and whether an AI agent participated. The AI summary shows right on the call, and the Transcript toggle opens the full transcript. Conference calls with multiple participants show up here too.
- SMS messages — Text conversations display inline. Outbound messages show delivery status (sending, sent, delivered, or failed).
- Notes — Internal notes from your team appear in the timeline. Anyone on your team can add context about a customer without the customer seeing it.
AI summaries
Calls that get recorded and transcribed include AI-generated summaries. The full summary shows right in the timeline under AI Summary, so there's nothing to click.
Contact Details Panel#
The right side of your inbox shows details about the current contact. You can see and edit their first and last name, email, company, job title, and phone number. There's also a button to start a call directly from this panel.
If a contact doesn't exist yet, dialnote lets you create one from this view. The phone number fills in automatically from the conversation. See Contacts for more on managing your contact records.
Composing New Messages#
For phone numbers with SMS enabled, the inbox header shows a New message button. Click it to start a conversation with any contact. Enter the recipient's phone number and your message, then hit send.
SMS availability
The compose button only works for phone numbers that have SMS/messaging enabled. If the button is greyed out, check your phone number settings.
What's Next#
The inbox ties together most of what dialnote does. Dig into the pieces:
- Conversations — how conversations group and stay organized
- Messages — the message timeline in detail
- Notes — add private team context to any conversation
- Assignment — route conversations to the right teammate
- Blocking Numbers: stop a number reaching your team, in both directions
- Messaging & SMS — send texts, schedule messages, and set auto-replies
- Phone System — make and receive the calls that land here
- AI Agents — automate calls and add transcripts and summaries
- Team Management — add teammates who share the inbox