Inbox

The Inbox is where Fondaro opens and where you answer the people who write to you. The list sits in the sidebar, and the conversation you pick opens beside it with the reply box ready. A lead on WhatsApp and someone new who emailed about a home open in the same place. Your colleagues and agents at other agencies are in Messages, which opens beside any page.

Read the list

Each row shows who it is, how long ago, what they want (such as Wants a viewing) and their own words. A dot on the left means they are waiting for you.

The picture shows where they wrote from: the mark of the channel (email, WhatsApp, Instagram, LinkedIn or Telegram) sits on their photo.

These show up in the list:

A lead or someone new who wrote to one of your inboxes (your own, or one an admin gave you) and has no answer yet. The row leaves when you reply from that inbox or anyone calls them. A lead who wrote to a colleague's WhatsApp or email shows in the colleague's Inbox, not yours, even when you are on the lead: you still see it on the lead's page.
A lead's earlier conversation that nobody is waiting on, under All.

An inbox that needs reconnecting shows as a warning on the Inbox icon, and the reply box says so where it matters. Everything else that used to appear here has a home of its own: see Where else things are.

Choose what the list shows

Under the search box, three tabs show what the list holds. Each carries a number when someone is waiting:

Waiting: everyone waiting for you, the default (key 1).
New: people Fondaro does not know yet who wrote to your inboxes (key 2).
All: every conversation, newest first (key 3).

The button beside the search, or F, narrows the list:

Sources: All sources, or one of the channels you connected.
Owner (admins): Just me, Everyone, a team or a person. This changes whose inboxes you see.
Inboxes: which of your connected inboxes the list shows.

The search box looks through all your conversations by name and by what people wrote, whatever the tab.

Answer someone

Click a row, or move with J and K and press Space. On a wide screen the first row opens by itself.
Write in the reply box at the bottom. It starts on the channel they last wrote on.
Press Send, or Enter in a chat.

Sent a WhatsApp or LinkedIn message with a typo? Point at it, select ⋯ and choose Edit or Delete for everyone (how long you have).

A lead's conversation has tabs for each channel you talk on, and a row of actions at the top: Note, Task, Message (every channel you can write them on, then Add a channel), Homes and Call. An email opens as the email itself, with your reply already started. If you have not connected the channel they wrote on, the reply box says so with Connect, and offers another channel of theirs.

What Ask suggests for this person sits just above the reply box, such as a drafted reply or Book the viewing. Press one, or .. A drafted reply waits for you to read and send it.

Enter opens the lead's full page. On a phone, a row opens the conversation in place of the list, and the back arrow returns you.

Clear rows that need no answer

Some messages need no reply: "Thanks, see you Saturday!"

Point at the row and click the ring at its right, or press E.
The row leaves. Undo in the notice brings it back.

A lead's message is marked No reply needed, and someone new is marked Done for now. Either way, their next message brings them back.

To clear many at once, point at a row's picture and tick its box, Shift click to tick a range, or tick the box at the top of the list for every row. Then press No reply needed or E.

Answer someone new

When someone Fondaro does not know writes to one of your connected accounts, their row opens what they wrote with the reply box ready. Which new people reach the Inbox is your admin's choice: see Choose who reaches your Inbox. Answer first if you like: the reply goes from the account they wrote to.

Then decide who they are, at the top of the conversation, or press Done for now (E) to put them away until their next message:

Link a lead Fondaro suggests, when it is fairly sure who they are.
Add as lead opens the Add Lead form, filled in from their messages. Press Create Lead.
Link to lead puts the messages on a lead you already have.
Not a lead (under ⋯) deletes their messages from Fondaro.

When you link them or add them, Fondaro also brings in that chat's earlier messages, up to a year back. Messages from someone new are kept for 14 days while you decide.

Admins also see someone new who wrote to a teammate's connected email. Only the teammate can answer, because the reply goes from their account.

Message a lead

Press C, or the pencil at the right end of the row above the list.
Type a lead's name and pick them.
Their conversation opens with the reply box ready. Nothing is sent until you write.

To message a colleague or an agent at another agency, use Messages.

Messages

Messages holds your colleagues, your channels and agents at other agencies, with their requests. It opens beside whatever page you are on, so you can keep a chat open while you call or look at a home.

Messages (the speech-bubble key in the top bar, or ⌘⇧M) opens and closes it on any page, the Inbox included. G M does the same. The number on the key counts your unread chats and the requests waiting from agents at other agencies.
A green dot on someone's face means they are online right now. Nothing shows when they are away.
To start a chat, press the pencil and choose New message, or type a name in the search: colleagues you have never written to appear too. Create channel is in the same menu and makes a group: one for your team (private if you like), or one across agencies.
A first message to an agent at another agency is a request: they see it and choose Accept or Decline. You can start up to five new conversations with other agencies a day.
Enter sends, Shift Enter starts a new line. Your draft is kept per chat.
Point at a message to react, Reply in thread, or open More to edit, delete or report it. Press ↑ in an empty box to edit your last message.
Voice messages: when the box is empty, hold the microphone to record and let go to send, or click it to record hands-free. Up to 10 minutes. Show text turns one up to two minutes long into text, free.
GIFs and emoji: use the GIF and smiley buttons beside the box.
Open a chat's menu to change notifications, or to report or block someone.

Send a home or a lead as a card

Add a listing, an open house, a buyer request, a collection, an agent, an agency or a lead to your message as a card:

Attach (the paperclip, or ⌘⇧A) offers the home this chat is about and your recent records, then a search. Its first row uploads a file instead.
Type @ and a name, a place or a reference.
Paste a link or a listing reference, then press Attach.

Up to three cards ride with a message, and a card always goes with words. Each person sees a card only as far as they are allowed: a lead never leaves your agency, so an agent at another agency sees your words, never your lead's name or details.

Message from anywhere

Message is the same button on every person, home, open house and buyer request (Message host on an open house, Offer a home on a request). It opens a conversation with the right person and the record already added as a card. Nothing is sent until you write.

The conversation opens in Messages beside the page you are on, the Inbox included, so a lead or a listing stays in view. ⌘⇧M (Ctrl Shift M) opens or closes it.

Who can read your messages

A direct message: only the two of you. Not your admins, and not anyone at the other agency.
A channel in your agency: its members and your agency's admins.
A group with other agencies: its members only.
A lead's conversation: anyone who can open the lead.

Messages travel over an encrypted connection, and photos, files and voice messages open only through links that expire. Messages are not end-to-end encrypted: Fondaro's servers can read them, which is how a voice message becomes text and a reported message can be reviewed. Nothing you write is used to train anything.

Deleting a message removes it for everyone, and its files within 24 hours. A chat is kept until its messages are deleted or your agency leaves Fondaro.

When everyone has an answer

The Inbox says so and shows what is next on your calendar. All (or 3) shows every conversation. If you have not connected your email yet, it offers Connect your email, because that is what brings people here.

Where else things are

Some things used to appear in the Inbox. They live where the work happens now:

New leads: Leads › New.
A declined meeting: on the Calendar and on the lead, with Reschedule.
An opened brochure: on the lead, and Ask Fondaro offers the follow-up.
Posts to review: My listings › Posts, with a count. See Listing posts.
Co-listing invitations: My listings, counted on its row in the Properties sidebar.
Partnership requests: the Network page.
Inbox requests from colleagues: Settings › Me › Inboxes. See Inboxes.
Messages from colleagues and from other agencies: Messages.

On the phone app

The phone app keeps one Inbox: your conversations with leads, your team and other agencies are all in it.

Every key is on Keyboard shortcuts.