How to run Instagram, WhatsApp and TikTok messages from one inbox

Why one inbox is worth the setup

Running each app separately causes the same three problems in almost every shop:

• You check some apps less often. WhatsApp gets answered quickly because it is on your phone all day. TikTok messages wait until someone remembers to open the app, and by then the buyer has moved on.
• The reply window runs out unnoticed. Every app limits how long a business can reply after the customer's last message. When chats are spread across four apps, nobody sees which ones are about to close.
• Work cannot be shared fairly. If one person holds the phone, that person answers everything. If several people log in to the same app, two of them answer the same customer and nobody answers the next one.

One inbox fixes all three. Every new message lands in a single list, each chat shows how much reply time is left, and each chat can belong to one named person.

What you can bring into one inbox

In Karobar, private messages come in from four channels and appear in the same chat list:

• WhatsApp chats on your business number.
• Instagram direct messages.
• Facebook Messenger chats sent to your Page.
• TikTok direct messages to your business account.

Public comments are kept apart from private chats, because they need different handling. Comments from Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube arrive in a separate comments view. There you can reply in public, hide, pin, like or delete a comment, and turn a commenter into a lead. On Facebook and Instagram you can also answer a comment with a private reply. See comments and engagement.

Google reviews have their own place too, under reputation management, so a review is never mixed up with a sales chat. The inbox also has a team tab for messages between teammates, which keeps internal talk out of customer chats.

What each app needs before you connect it

Outside tools can only read and send messages for business accounts. A personal profile cannot be connected to any shared inbox. Before you start, check each account:

1. Instagram: switch the account to a professional account (business or creator) in the Instagram app. You keep your followers and posts.
2. Facebook Messenger: you need a Facebook Page for the shop, and you need to be able to manage that Page.
3. WhatsApp: the number has to be on WhatsApp's business platform. If you move a number over from the WhatsApp Business app, older chats come across, but messages sent before you linked the number do not open a reply window.
4. TikTok: use a TikTok business account, not a personal one.
5. Connect each one from the channels settings in Karobar. New messages from that account then start arriving in the shared list.

Connect one channel at a time and send yourself a test message from a personal account before moving to the next. That way, if something does not arrive, you know exactly which connection to check.

Each app's reply window, side by side

Every app limits when a business can send a message. The clock is based on the customer's messages, not yours. This is the single most useful thing to learn when you run several apps at once:

Karobar applies these rules for you. Each chat shows a countdown, or for TikTok the number of messages left. On Instagram and Messenger, replies sent between 24 hours and 7 days are marked as human agent messages automatically, and sending is blocked after 7 days. On WhatsApp, once 24 hours have passed, the message box stays locked until you pick an approved template. For the full WhatsApp picture, read WhatsApp auto replies and the 24-hour window.

The practical rule across all four apps is simple: answer on the same day. Nothing in any app's rules punishes a fast reply.

Keep context with labels, tags and a shared note

When several people work one inbox, the chat itself has to carry the context. Otherwise the next person has to scroll back through a long thread to learn what is going on. Karobar gives you three tools for this:

• Labels belong to the whole workspace, so everyone uses the same set, such as "New order", "Waiting for payment" or "Complaint". You attach them to chats and filter the list by them. On Messenger chats, labels also sync to the Page's own labels on Facebook.
• Tags are free text you type on a chat for anything that does not need a shared label. Tags are available on plans that include them; check pricing for your plan.
• One shared note per chat. Each chat has a single note that everyone on the team can read, such as "Wants the blue one, will pay advance on Friday". Saving the note replaces what was there, so edit it rather than adding to the bottom.

Keep the label list short. Five to eight labels that everyone understands work far more reliably than thirty that nobody remembers.

Assign every chat to one person

The rule that stops double replies is simple: every customer chat has exactly one owner at a time. In Karobar you can assign a chat in two ways:

• By hand. Open the chat and assign it to a teammate. Use this to hand a chat to the person who knows the product, or to pass a complaint to whoever handles them.
• Automatically. Switch on auto-assign under the team assignment settings. Each new customer chat then goes to the active teammate who has the fewest chats. The owner's own profile is left out, so the owner is not buried in new chats.

A team member can only send in chats assigned to them, so two people never answer the same customer with different prices. See team inbox.

Give each teammate their own login and the right access

Never share your Instagram, Facebook or WhatsApp password with staff. A shared password means you cannot tell who sent what, and you have to change it for everyone when one person leaves.

Karobar has two kinds of people in a workspace. The owner is the account holder. Team members are invited by the owner, and the owner chooses which parts of the app each one can open, module by module. A team member can also be given the right to manage other team members. So a helper who only answers chats can see the inbox and nothing else, while someone who packs orders can see orders but not your settings.

How to split the work across a team

There is no single right way to divide chats. Pick the pattern that matches how your shop actually sells:

• By shift. Turn on auto-assign and let new chats go to whoever is on duty. This suits shops where everyone can answer every question.
• By topic. One person handles new sales questions, another handles delivery problems and complaints. New chats come in to the sales person, and they reassign by hand when a chat turns into a complaint.
• By channel. One person owns TikTok and Instagram, where questions are often about a video or a post, and another owns WhatsApp, where buyers usually confirm orders.

You can also take the repeat questions off everyone's plate. Keyword inbox auto replies answer common questions like price or delivery with text you wrote, and Karobar AI writes reply drafts from your products, prices, variants, business info and knowledge, which a person reads and sends.

A daily routine for a shared inbox

When a chat turns into a sale, record the order while the conversation is open. Taking orders from Instagram DMs walks through that part step by step.