Shared mailboxes and delegation
Two common situations are covered by sharing:
- A team mailbox, such as
[email protected]or[email protected], that several people read and answer. These are shared mailboxes: they belong to nobody in particular, and your administrator decides who can use them. - Delegation: you let an assistant or a colleague look after your mail and calendar, for example while you're away.
Either way, the person you share with sees the whole mailbox: its mail, calendars, contacts and tasks. There is no separate calendar sharing; sharing a mailbox shares its calendar.
Share your mailbox with someone
- Open Settings > Sharing.
- Under Add someone, type the person's email address or username exactly, choose the access level, and click Find.
- Check the name shown and click Grant.
The access levels:
| Level | The person can |
|---|---|
| Can view | Read your mail, calendar, contacts and tasks. They can't send, change or delete anything. |
| Can manage | Everything you can do: read, send as you, file and delete mail, change events, manage who else has access, and even delete the mailbox. Give this only to someone you fully trust. |
People with access lists everyone you've shared with. Change someone's level with the menu next to them, or click Remove to take their access away straight away.
Your administrator can't read your mail just because they are an administrator. They see your mailbox only if you share it with them, or if they sign in as you, which is recorded in the audit log.
Who sees when you're busy
Even without sharing, colleagues can see when you're busy (never what the event is) when they look for a meeting time. Choose who in Settings > Profile > Free/busy visibility. See Settings.
To keep the details of particular events hidden from people who can view your calendar, set the event's Visibility to Private. They then see only a "Busy" block. See Calendar.
Work in a mailbox shared with you
As soon as a mailbox is shared with you, it appears in the web app. You don't need to add it.
- Mail: it gets its own section in the folder list. All Mailboxes at the top merges the inboxes, sent mail, drafts, deleted items and junk of every mailbox you can open. Team mailboxes have a group icon.
- Calendar: its calendars appear in the list on the left, under its name, each with a check box to show or hide it.
- Contacts, Tasks and Settings: pick the mailbox with Mailbox at the top.
With Can view access, you can read but not change anything, and the mailbox isn't offered as a sender or as a place to create events.
Send from a shared mailbox
- Click Compose.
- In From, choose the shared mailbox.
- Write and send as usual.
The message goes out with the shared mailbox's name and address; recipients don't see your name. When you reply to a message that arrived in a shared mailbox, the reply is sent from that mailbox automatically. Choose the sender before adding attachments, because it can't be changed afterwards.
Settings for a shared mailbox
Most settings, such as signatures, automatic replies, mail filters and blocked senders, belong to a mailbox, not to you. To change them for a shared mailbox, open Settings and pick it under Mailbox. Some things only the owner can change, such as who sees the mailbox's free/busy times and its encryption.
Team mailboxes
Team (shared) mailboxes are created by your administrator, who also adds the first people to them. Anyone with Can manage access can then add others in Settings > Sharing.
Encrypted mail in a mailbox shared with you can only be unlocked by the mailbox's owner, so you can't read it, and it isn't included in your search results.
Work with shared mailboxes in the web app. Outlook can't open them.