> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.getthread.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Inbox Navigation: Rail, Side Panel, and Views
> Tour Inbox navigation, the rail and side panel that organize My Inbox, Mentions, Drafts, Timer, Approvals, and shared Views for your service team.
## The left navigation
Inbox navigation has two parts that sit side by side on the far left:
* A vertical **rail** of icons for your main destinations — **Magic** (Super Magic, where
enabled), **Inbox**, **Planner**, **Contacts** (or **Clients**), and **Configs**. You can
reorder rail items and even recolor the rail from your navigation preferences.
* A **side panel** that opens for the Inbox rail item and holds your personal views and shared
Views (covered below).
The Inbox side panel is split into a few groups:
* A **personal** group tailored to each tech — **My Inbox**, **Mentions**, **My Drafts**,
**Timer**, and (where enabled) **Approvals**.
* A **Views** group of fully customizable, shareable Views where most collaboration happens —
optionally organized into **Teams**.
Everything here is a real-time window into open threads, kept up to date and synced almost
instantly.
A bolded View is a notification indicator. See
[How to Manage Your Inbox Notifications](/notifications/managing-your-inbox-notifications) and
[How Notifications Work for your Team](/notifications/how-will-notifications-work-internally).
### The personal group
#### **New Thread**
This section has many unique features. Let’s start from the top and move our way down. At the top, we have the “New Thread” Button. This button allows you to create a non-live thread on behalf of a contact. When creating a new thread using this method, you select the contact, the board that the thread should be on, a thread summary, and then type the initial message. For these types of thread, the “send by email” checkbox is checked by default. It is typically used by internal members when an issue arrives through some other route.
#### **My Inbox View**
This view is tailored to each individual tech.
Only threads assigned to you appear in this View — assignment is also referred to as being the
**primary resource**.
#### **@ Mentions View**
This View is the same as the “My Inbox” View but has a slightly different functionality.
Only threads where you are a **secondary resource** appear in this View. You become a secondary
resource by being @ mentioned in a thread, or by being added to it manually.
#### **Planner**
Thread Planner tab shows a customizable view of all of your scheduled threads. For more information on thread planner, see [Using Planner](/inbox/using-planner).
#### **Configurations & Contacts**
These Views show all contacts and configurations synced over to thread from your PSA.
#### **My Drafts**
This View usually contains threads for a short amount of time. The threads that appear inside this View are threads where you have begun typing a message but have not yet sent.
A thread appears here as soon as you start typing a reply or an internal note, and stays for as
long as any characters remain in the chatbox.
### The Views group
This section contains custom views created by users that are tailored to certain criteria. Each view has specific flow criteria attached to it. Let us first go over how to create a View.
#### **Creating a View**
First, you click the “+” button at the end of the “Views” title
You will want to name the view and upload an icon
Next click on View to, then add your team members
Next you will create the logic that you want associated with the view. Click on filter and select your filter options.
Once you complete these steps, hit save
#### **The View List**
Now that you have created a view, you understand how they work and what their purpose is. For instance, in the image above we see that we have multiple views. Each one has a unique purpose, and customers tailor them to fit their own workflow and help desk needs.
**Admins** can create shared Views. A **Team Admin** can create team Views for the teams they
administer, from that team's **Add a team view** action. Members cannot create Views.
### Timer and the account menu
#### **Timer**
The **Timer** item contains all threads that currently have a TimePad timer running. This is
specific to you, the timer must be running for *you*, not anyone else.
#### **Account menu**
At the bottom, by clicking on your name you are able to access:
1. **Snippets**
2. **Preferences** (including your workflow automations)
3. **Beast Mode Shortcuts** (the full keyboard-shortcut reference)
4. **Sign out**
#### **Snippets**
Let’s look at the Snippets Menu:
The snippets menu has 2 sections:
1. ***“Your Snippets”*** - These snippets are created by you and only viewable by you
2. ***“Team Snippets”*** - These snippets are created by anyone on the team and are able to be used by anyone on the team.
**Snippets** are used by help desk users to automate repetitive messages or tasks. Common snippets may include a scheduling link, a CSAT survey, or a Triage message.
Snippets are unique because they can use variables that are filled in from the thread when the
snippet is inserted:
| Variable | Fills in with |
| ------------------ | ------------------------------------------- |
| `{Ticket ID}` | The thread/ticket number (or PSA system ID) |
| `{Ticket Summary}` | The thread summary |
| `{Full Name}` | The contact's name |
#### **Inbox Preferences**
Each user can edit their inbox preferences at a user level.
1. **Auto-assign me to a new thread when I reply** - When this is enabled, you will automatically be assigned as the owner of a thread after you send the first customer facing reply
2. **Start the timer when I reply to a thread** - When this is enabled, your TimePad timer will automatically start once you send a customer facing reply
3. **Open TimePad when I start the timer** - When this is enabled, the TimePad will expand in the control panel when you start the timer
4. **Stop the timer when I close a thread** - When this is enabled, the TimePad timer will stop after you change the status of a thread to a configured "closed" status
5. **Remind me to add a time entry when I close a thread** - This will engage a popup reminding you to submit a time entry if the timer is still running when you close a thread
6. **Automatically pause TimePad when I navigate away from a thread** - This will automatically pause the timer when you navigate away from the thread within Inbox. Note: the timer will still continue if the thread is open but you navigate to another tab
7. **Sounds** - you can learn more about these two preferences [in this doc](/notifications/managing-your-inbox-notifications#sound-notifications)
## FAQ Section
**On the web**: go to [inbox.getthread.com](https://inbox.getthread.com), sign in with your work email, and confirm the one-time passcode sent to you.
**As an app**: Inbox is available for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. Download links are at [getthread.com/downloads](https://www.getthread.com/downloads).
Open the dropdown under your name and choose **Beast Mode Shortcuts** to see the full list. They work best in the Inbox desktop app.
If you notice that some things are not synced to thread, you can run a manual sync. To do this, navigate to the thread admin panel and go to Integrations -> PSA -> PSA Sync. From here you can run a manual sync.
You will need to manually add any new members to views you have created after they have synced over to thread.
## Related topics
- [Views and Insights in Thread Inbox](/inbox/views-and-insights.md)
- [Contact Intelligence FAQ](/ai-agents/contact-intelligence-faq.md)
- [Approvals in Inbox: Request and Manage Decisions](/inbox/approvals-in-inbox.md)