Shared Mailboxes FAQ

A shared mailbox is one inbox that the whole team opens, so each email exists once and everyone sees what has been answered. A distribution list has no inbox of its own: it forwards a separate copy of every email to each member, so there is no way to tell who replied. Shared mailboxes suit team email that needs one answer; distribution lists suit one-way announcements.

No, not under 50 GB. A shared mailbox can store up to 50 GB without its own license, but every person who uses it needs their own licensed Exchange Online mailbox. Past 50 GB, the shared mailbox needs an Exchange Online Plan 2 license, which raises the limit to 100 GB.

Yes. Everyone with Full Access permission can read and reply at once. The catch is that Outlook does not show who is handling an email, so two people can answer the same message while another goes unanswered. Emailgistics fixes that by giving every email one owner.

Give every email one clear owner. In Outlook on its own, teams try flags, categories or folders, which depend on everyone remembering to use them. Emailgistics assigns each new email to one person automatically and shows the owner in Outlook, so the rest of the team knows it is handled.

Outlook has no built-in assignment, so teams assign by hand with categories, flags or by moving email into folders. Emailgistics assigns email automatically by round robin or load balancing, or by rules based on the sender or subject, and team members can reassign from the add-in.

Outlook does not report response times for shared mailboxes. Emailgistics measures reply and close times for every email, by mailbox, team member and tag, shows them on a live dashboard, and alerts managers when an email has waited longer than its target.