Canonical page: https://docs.teloring.com/docs/product/roles/channel-permissions Last modified: 2026-08-20T20:49:57.000Z # Channel permissions reference The **Channel permissions** tab decides what an agent may do **in each inbox**. It is the half of a role that shapes an agent's actual working day.  These are not read/create/update/delete. An inbox is a *place*, and the useful questions about a place are different: can they see its waiting line, can they be handed work from it, may they reply, may they resolve. So each inbox has the same **18 on/off abilities**. ## How the tab works | Element | What it does | | --- | --- | | **Future inbox (default)** | The first card, marked with a dashed border. Sets the defaults for every inbox you connect from now on — and for any inbox below that you have not configured. Always expanded. | | **Inbox card** | One per connected inbox, showing its name and channel type. Click the header to expand or collapse. | | **Counter** (`12/18`) | How many of the 18 abilities are on for that inbox. Read it at a glance without expanding. | | **Inherited** badge | This inbox has never been configured in this role, so it is following **Future inbox**. | | **Checkbox** | The ability. Each has a one-line explanation underneath. | | **Select all** / **Clear all** | Tick or clear all 18 for that inbox in one click. | :::tip Set Future inbox first, then handle exceptions The efficient order is: 1. Expand **Future inbox** and set what this role should normally be able to do in any inbox. 2. Leave every inbox that matches those defaults alone — they will show **Inherited** and follow along. 3. Only expand and change the inboxes that are genuinely different. A role for a WhatsApp-only team is therefore: clear everything in **Future inbox**, then tick what you need on the WhatsApp inbox alone. Two cards touched instead of ten. ::: --- ## Future inbox — how inheritance works This is the most important idea on the page, and it saves the most work. An inbox card in a role is in one of two states: | State | Badge | Behaviour | | --- | --- | --- | | **Inherited** | **Inherited** | You have never changed this inbox in this role. It uses the **Future inbox** values, and keeps following them — including if you change Future inbox later. | | **Explicit** | none | You have changed at least one box on this inbox. It now has its own settings and no longer follows Future inbox. | The moment you tick or untick anything on an inherited card, it becomes explicit. Teloring copies the current Future inbox values across first, so changing one box never silently clears the other seventeen. ### Why this matters **Connect a new inbox and every role already knows what to do with it.** A new WhatsApp number, a second support mailbox, a Telegram bot — each one picks up each role's Future inbox settings automatically. You do not revisit this page, and no role is accidentally left with access to a channel nobody reviewed. It works in both directions: | Situation | What happens | | --- | --- | | You connect a new inbox | Every role applies its own **Future inbox** values to it, immediately. | | You later change **Future inbox** in a role | Every inbox in that role still showing **Inherited** updates too. Explicit ones are untouched. | | You create a new role after connecting the inbox | Same rule — nothing about the order matters. | | You delete an inbox | Its stored settings stay harmlessly in each role and disappear from the editor. | :::warning Future inbox is a permission, not a placeholder It is easy to read *"Future inbox"* as a template that does nothing until a channel arrives. It is a live rule: any inbox showing **Inherited** is being governed by it right now. Ticking **See All Open conversations** in Future inbox grants it on every inherited inbox in that role immediately — not just future ones. ::: --- ## The 18 abilities They are grouped below by what they do. In the product they appear in this exact order. ### What the agent can see | Ability | What it grants | Where the agent notices | | --- | --- | --- | | **See the waiting line** | Access to *Waiting in line* conversations from this inbox | The **Waiting in line** queue and its badge count | | **Get Next in Line** | Allows taking the next waiting conversation from this inbox | The **Get next in line** button | | **See Studio Bot conversations** | Conversations currently handled by a Studio flow | The **Studio Bot** queue | | **See AI Agent conversations** | Conversations currently handled by an AI Agent | The **AI Agent** queue | | **See On Hold conversations** | Conversations parked until a deadline | The **On Hold** queue | | **See All Open conversations** | Every open conversation in this inbox, whoever owns it | The **All Open** queue | | **See all resolved conversations** | Every resolved conversation in this inbox | The **Resolved** queue | | **See previous conversations** | The *Previous conversations* panel inside a conversation | The right-hand panel | ### What the agent can do | Ability | What it grants | | --- | --- | | **Send a new message** | Reply to the customer in this inbox | | **Start a new conversation** | This inbox appears in the **+ New conversation** picker | | **Send a private note** | Write an internal note on a conversation in this inbox | | **Put a conversation on hold** | Use the **On Hold** button | | **Can assign conversations** | Change **Assigned to** or **Assigned team** | | **Resolve a conversation** | Use the **Resolve** button | | **Delete a conversation** | The **Delete** button — **email inboxes only** | | **Set conversation priority** | The priority picker | | **Set a flag for a conversation** | The flag picker | | **Set a label for a conversation** | Add, change or remove labels | ### Notes on individual abilities **See the waiting line** and **Get Next in Line** are deliberately separate. A role can watch a queue filling up without being handed work from it — useful for a supervisor who monitors but does not take conversations, and for a team that should only receive work from its own channel. **See All Open conversations** is the broad one. It shows conversations owned by other agents. Leave it off and the agent works only from *Mine* plus whatever they take from the waiting line — the classic front-line setup. **Send a new message** and **Send a private note** are separate on purpose. A role can annotate a conversation for colleagues without being allowed to speak to the customer — a quality reviewer, a specialist adding context, a trainee whose replies are still being checked. **Start a new conversation** controls the inbox picker. When an agent clicks **+ New conversation**, only inboxes with this ability are offered. **Can assign conversations** covers both the agent picker and the team picker. Handing back **your own** conversation with **Send back in line** never needs it — an agent must always be able to let go of their own work. **Delete a conversation** only appears on **email** inboxes, because email is the only channel where deleting a thread is a normal action. Ticking it on a WhatsApp inbox is harmless and does nothing. It is the most destructive conversation permission there is — it destroys the message history — and it is never implied by **Resolve**. **See previous conversations** deserves a moment. The panel shows other conversations with the same customer, which may be from inboxes the agent otherwise cannot work in. Teloring filters that panel per inbox, so each previous conversation only appears if the agent has this ability **on the inbox that conversation belongs to** — not the one they are currently reading. --- ## Why "Mine" is never filtered **Conversations assigned to an agent are always fully accessible to them, in every inbox, regardless of channel permissions.** The reason is practical. If an agent is assigned an Email conversation and Email is later restricted for their role, filtering it out of *Mine* would leave a real customer waiting on a conversation nobody can see. Assignment always wins. So: | Queue | Filtered by inbox? | | --- | --- | | **Mine** | **No.** Never. | | Waiting in line | Yes — `See the waiting line` | | Studio Bot | Yes — `See Studio Bot conversations` | | AI Agent | Yes — `See AI Agent conversations` | | On Hold | Yes — `See On Hold conversations` | | All Open | Yes — `See All Open conversations` | | Resolved | Yes — `See all resolved conversations` | The same applies to a conversation reached by link or by search: if it is assigned to that agent, they can open it. :::info The Conversations menu never disappears Whatever a role allows, the **Conversations** section and all seven queues stay in the sidebar. Only the *contents* change. That is intentional. A menu that changes shape per person is hard to support — "click Waiting in line" stops being reliable advice. A queue an agent cannot see anything in simply shows an empty list. ::: --- ## What else follows these permissions Channel permissions are applied everywhere a conversation could appear, not only in the queue lists. | Place | Behaviour | | --- | --- | | **Sidebar badge counts** | Counted with the same rules as the list, so a badge never says 12 over a list of 3. An inflated badge would itself reveal how much traffic an agent is not allowed to see. | | **Conversation search** | Scoped to the same inboxes as the queue being searched, so search cannot surface something the list hides. | | **Message search** | Same — message *contents* from a restricted inbox are never returned. | | **Get next in line** | Only offers conversations from inboxes with **Get Next in Line**. | | **Filters** | The filter panel can only ever narrow what the agent may already see. It cannot be used to reach past a restriction. | | **Previous conversations** | Filtered per inbox, as described above. | | **Dashboard tiles** | The *waiting* and *resolved today* figures on the home page follow the same rules. | | **AI Copilot** | Available where the agent may **Send a new message**, since Copilot drafts replies. Nothing to draft, nothing to show. | | **Opening by ID** | A conversation in a restricted inbox reports *not found*, rather than *forbidden* — whether it exists at all is itself information. | | **The API** | Same rules, same results. A script using an agent's session sees exactly what the agent sees. | :::note What an agent sees when a control is removed Buttons — **Resolve**, **On Hold**, **Delete** — are hidden entirely. Pickers that display a current value — priority, flag, labels, assignment — are shown **greyed out** instead. The agent can still read that a conversation is Urgent without being able to change it. Removing them would hide information the agent legitimately needs. ::: --- ## What the default roles grant These are each role's **Future inbox** values, which every inbox inherits until you say otherwise. | Ability | Owner | Team Leader | Marketing | Agent | Viewer | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | See the waiting line | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | | Get Next in Line | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | | See Studio Bot conversations | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | | See AI Agent conversations | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | | See On Hold conversations | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | | See All Open conversations | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | | See all resolved conversations | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | | Send a new message | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | | Start a new conversation | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | | Send a private note | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | | See previous conversations | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | | Put a conversation on hold | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | | Can assign conversations | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | | Resolve a conversation | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | | Delete a conversation | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | | Set conversation priority | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | | Set a flag for a conversation | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | | Set a label for a conversation | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ### Reading the table - **Team Leader** has everything, in every inbox, including deleting email threads. It is the support-floor role. - **Marketing** can work conversations — reply, start, assign, resolve, label — but sees **none of the shared queues**. In practice it works only from *Mine*: conversations assigned to it, or ones it started. That is what "cannot see everyone's conversations" means in a permission grid. - **Agent** has the full front-line set, minus the two bot queues and minus deleting. Front-line agents do not need to watch what Studio and the AI are handling, and should not be able to destroy an email thread. - **Viewer** has **nothing**. It is a reporting role with no conversation access at all — every queue is empty for it, and it can still read Analytics and customers. --- ## Common setups ### One team, one channel *A WhatsApp team that must not see Email.* 1. Duplicate the **Agent** role and name it *WhatsApp team*. 2. Open **Channel permissions** → **Future inbox** → **Clear all**. 3. Expand the WhatsApp inbox → **Select all**, then untick **Delete a conversation**. 4. Save. Every other inbox stays inherited from an empty Future inbox, so they see nothing there — including any inbox connected later, which is the point. ### A supervisor who watches but does not answer 1. Duplicate **Agent**, name it *Floor supervisor*. 2. In **Future inbox**, keep all the *see* abilities on. 3. Untick **Get Next in Line** — they monitor rather than take work. 4. Keep **Can assign conversations** on, so they can route. 5. Untick **Send a new message** if they should never reply directly. ### A quality reviewer who comments but never replies 1. Duplicate **Agent**, name it *Quality review*. 2. In **Future inbox**, keep **See All Open conversations**, **See all resolved conversations** and **See previous conversations** on. 3. Untick **Send a new message**, **Start a new conversation**, **Resolve a conversation** and **Get Next in Line**. 4. Keep **Send a private note** on, and **Set a label for a conversation** so they can tag what they reviewed. They can read every conversation and annotate it, and the customer never hears from them. ### An external contractor on one channel 1. Create a role, name it after the contractor. 2. **System permissions**: tick **Customers → Read** and nothing else. 3. **Channel permissions**: **Future inbox** → **Clear all**. 4. On their one inbox, tick only what they need: *see the waiting line*, *Get Next in Line*, *send a message*, *resolve*, *see previous conversations*. 5. Save. More recipes in [Example roles and recipes](./examples.md). --- ## Limitations and what to watch for | Item | What actually happens | Do this instead | | --- | --- | --- | | **No per-conversation permission** | Permissions are per inbox, never per individual conversation, customer or label. | Separate the traffic by inbox if it must be separated. | | **"Mine" cannot be restricted** | An assigned conversation is always visible to its owner, by design. | Control who can be *assigned* using **Can assign conversations** and [Teams](../teams.md). | | **The queues are always in the sidebar** | An agent with no channel access still sees seven queue links, all empty. | Nothing to do. They will not click twice. | | **Delete only applies to email** | Ticking **Delete a conversation** on a WhatsApp or SMS inbox has no effect — there is no delete action on those channels. | Harmless; leave it or clear it. | | **My Ring → Read shows every inbox** | An agent with inbox *setup* access sees all inboxes listed there, including ones they cannot work in. | Do not grant **My Ring → Read** to roles that should not know an inbox exists. | | **Teams are a separate limit** | Even with **Get Next in Line**, an agent is only handed conversations with no team, or from a team they belong to. | Check [Teams](../teams.md) when work is not arriving. | | **A deleted inbox keeps its entry** | Its settings stay stored in the role, harmlessly, and are no longer shown. | Nothing to do. | | **No per-role schedule** | A role cannot grant access only during a shift. | Deactivate the agent, or handle it in Studio. | --- ## Troubleshooting ### A queue is empty for one agent but not another Their roles differ, or the same role has different inboxes configured. Open the role's **Channel permissions** tab, expand the relevant inbox, and check the ability for that queue. Remember the **Inherited** badge: if the inbox is inherited, the answer is in **Future inbox**, not on that card. ### "Get next in line" says nothing is waiting, but I can see conversations waiting Two possible reasons, in this order: 1. **Get Next in Line** is off for those inboxes, while **See the waiting line** is on. The role is set to watch, not take. 2. Everything waiting belongs to a [team](../teams.md) the agent is not in. ### An agent cannot reply, but the conversation is open in front of them **Send a new message** is off for that inbox. If **Send a private note** is on, they will land on the private note tab — that is deliberate, so they are not staring at a composer that will be refused. ### An agent cannot change a conversation's priority, but can see it Correct behaviour. **Set conversation priority** is off, so the picker is greyed out rather than hidden — they can read the value, not change it. ### A new inbox is visible to a role that should not have it That role's **Future inbox** grants it, and the new inbox inherited those defaults. Either clear Future inbox for that role, or expand the new inbox and clear it there. ### The Previous conversations panel is missing **See previous conversations** is off for the inbox the agent is reading. If the panel is there but shorter than expected, the missing entries belong to inboxes where the ability is off. ### An agent sees a conversation from a restricted inbox Almost always because it is **assigned to them** — *Mine* is never filtered. Check **Assigned to** on the conversation. If it is genuinely not theirs, check whether the inbox card is **Inherited** and what **Future inbox** grants. --- ## Related guides - [Roles and Permissions](./overview.md) — creating, editing and assigning roles. - [System permissions reference](./system-permissions.md) — the other half of a role. - [Example roles and recipes](./examples.md) — complete setups to copy. - [Conversations](../../getting-started/conversations.md) — the queues, **Get next**, filters and actions. - [The Ring — inboxes](../ring/overview.md) — connecting the inboxes these permissions apply to. - [Teams](../teams.md) — routing, which also affects what an agent is handed. - [On Hold](../on-hold.md) — the queue behind **See On Hold conversations**.