How the inbox works

The Swimlane inbox brings your LinkedIn conversations into one list, next to everything you know about each person: tags, pipeline stage, notes and reminders. This article explains how conversations arrive, what each view shows and what the inbox does not do.

How your conversations get into Swimlane

First opening. The first time you open Inbox, Swimlane imports the LinkedIn conversations that had activity in the last 6 months. A long history can take a moment to fill in.
While you work. Each time you open Inbox → Messaging, Swimlane fetches your most recent LinkedIn conversations. While the page stays open, it checks again every 15 to 30 seconds, as long as the tab is visible and you are using the mouse or keyboard. An open conversation is checked every 5 to 15 seconds. New messages are not pushed instantly, so a reply can take a few seconds to show up.
Contacts are created for you. Every person you have a conversation with becomes a contact automatically. You don't need to import anyone.
Your conversations only. The inbox shows the conversations of your own LinkedIn account. Teammates in your workspace share contacts with you, but each person only sees their own messages.

Reading the list

Conversations are sorted by their last message, most recent first. Each row shows:

the contact's name and headline, and their ICP fit level if one has been calculated (hover it to see the level for each campaign audience)
a preview of the last message, with a YOU label when you sent it
how long ago the last message was sent
unread conversations in bold, with a dot on the avatar

On a wide screen, the row also has columns for Tags, Pipeline, Notes and Reminder. You can update these without opening the conversation.

Above the list:

The search field (Search by name, company, or message...) filters the list as you type. It also matches headlines, locations, notes and tags.
Export CSV downloads the contacts currently shown.
Tick the checkboxes to pick several rows, then open Bulk Actions to archive them, add or remove tags, move them to a list or assign them to a pipeline stage.

The views

The tabs at the top of Messaging filter the list:

All: every conversation, except archived ones.
Unread: conversations you haven't opened since the last new message.
Last message by contact: the contact wrote last, so the ball is in your court, whether you have read it or not.
Last message by me: you wrote last and are waiting for an answer.
Never replied: the contact wrote last and you haven't opened it yet. These are the messages nobody has looked at.

Archived conversations never appear in these views. They have their own page (see Archive and restore conversations).

Opening a conversation

Click a row to open the contact window:

the profile on the left
the conversation in the middle, with the message composer at the bottom
the Info and Activity tabs on the right: pipeline, reminders, archive, Swimlane Analysis, notes, tags and campaigns

Use the arrows at the top of the window to go to the previous or next conversation in the view you opened it from. Scroll up in the conversation to load older messages. On a phone, the same content is split into the Profile, Messages, Activity and Info tabs.

Opening a conversation marks it as read, both in Swimlane and on LinkedIn.

The sidebar

Conversations: Messaging (the badge counts unread conversations) and Archived.
My Network: All Members (all your contacts), Reminders (contacts with a reminder), Relations (1st-degree connections) and Contacts (people you are not connected with).
Invitations: Sent (pending invitations) and Received (invitations you can accept or ignore).
Tags: No tag, then one page per tag.
Pipelines: one page per pipeline, listing the contacts on any of its stages.

Every page opens the same contact window when you click a row, so you can reply from anywhere.

What the inbox does not do

It doesn't rank conversations by ICP fit or priority. The order is always by date.
It doesn't send messages at a scheduled time. A message goes out when you click Send.
It doesn't let you mark a conversation as unread.
It doesn't show messages the instant they arrive. It refreshes every few seconds while you use it.