Reading & triage

CommSync stores messages and threads once for the whole organization, but your view of those threads is entirely your own. If you archive a thread, mark it read, or mute it, you change only what you see — your teammates' inboxes are untouched. This page covers every triage action and when to reach for each one.

Your private inbox view

Your view vs. the shared record

Every message and thread is org-canonical: there is one copy, and all members with channel access can see it. What differs per person is the per-user view state. That state covers the read or unread flag, archive and snooze status, label assignments, and mute status, and CommSync stores it separately for each member.

This matters in practice: if a teammate archives a thread, it disappears from their inbox and stays in yours. If they mark it read, your unread badge is unaffected. Triage is a personal workspace tool, not a shared signal.

Triage actions

Action	What it does	Reversible?
Mark read	Clears the unread count for this thread.	Yes — mark unread restores it.
Mark unread	Re-flags the thread so it gets your attention.	Yes.
Archive	Moves the thread out of your inbox. New replies bring it back automatically.	Yes — unarchive returns it.
Snooze	Hides the thread until a time you choose. Resurfaces at the snoozed time.	Yes — unsnooze it early at any time.
Mute	Silences unread-count increments for new inbound messages. The thread stays visible at its natural position.	Yes — unmute to resume the count.
Move to Spam	Routes the thread into your Spam bucket. Does not affect delivery or other teammates.	Yes — move to inbox.
Move to Promotions	Routes into the Promotions bucket (marketing, newsletters).	Yes — move to inbox.
Move to Automated	Routes into Automated Messages — important but non-human mail (receipts, codes, alerts).	Yes — move to inbox.
Move to inbox	Returns a thread from any bucket (Archive, Spam, Promotions, Automated, Trash) to your main inbox.	—
Trash	Soft-deletes the thread from your view. Permanently removed after ~30 days.	Yes, within the 30-day window.

How muting works

Mute is the right tool when a thread stays active but is not urgent for you. Two examples: a long group email chain that CCs you, or an ongoing SMS exchange you watch but do not drive.

When you mute a thread:

• New inbound messages do not increment your unread count.
• The thread remains fully visible in your inbox at its natural last-message position.
• A bell-off indicator shows on the thread avatar so you can tell at a glance.
• Mute status does not affect outbound messages you send from that thread.

Mute status is strictly per-user. A teammate who mutes a thread does not affect anyone else's badge counts or view.

Triage your inbox

Views: Inbox, All Conversations, and folders

Everything below is one folding Inbox group in the sidebar. Click Inbox to open the inbox itself; the caret beside it folds the group away when you want a quieter rail. Each row nested underneath is a narrower slice of the same mail, which is why they live inside Inbox rather than in a separate list:

You can move threads between buckets from the context menu at any time. Inbox is the new name for the view once called "Conversations"; All Conversations is the catch-all when you would rather scan everything at once instead of folder-by-folder.

Narrow the list

One control above the thread list holds every filter. Click Filter to open it. The menu has four groups:

• Unread — hide everything you have read.
• Contacts — keep only senders you saved as contacts. It hides one-off and unknown senders.
• Line — show one phone number or one mailbox. Hidden lines sit under Not in your inbox.
• Labels — show one label. See Labels.

Type in the box at the top to search lines and labels together. Each filter you turn on becomes a chip beside the Filter button. So the list always states what narrows it. Click a chip to remove that filter.

The filters stack, and they stick to the URL. So a filtered list is shareable, and it survives a refresh. A folder that does not accept a filter does not offer it. Spam and Trash carry no sender attribution, so they show neither the line group nor Contacts.

Unread counts and badges

The thread list shows per-thread unread counts next to each row. The sidebar badge shows the total across all active threads. Both reflect only your view state:

• Read the thread (open it, or choose "mark read") and the count resets to zero.
• New inbound messages on a non-muted thread increment the count.
• Muted threads never increment the count, even when new messages arrive.
• Archived threads that receive a new reply return to inbox and start counting again.

Context menus

All triage actions are available via right-click (or two-finger click) on any thread row. This is the primary way to triage in CommSync, which does not display actions as always-visible rows of buttons. The same context menu also appears on message bubbles for message-level actions like forward and retry.