# Send-only inboxes

Some inboxes exist to send, not to chat: a WhatsApp number that carries your Blasts and reminders, or an API inbox that one of your systems posts through. Two switches on the inbox's settings keep such an inbox out of the way. **Hide from All Conversations** keeps its conversations out of the shared views. **Outbound only** stops it taking in messages from customers at all.

Both switches live in **Settings → Inboxes**, on the inbox's **Settings** tab under **Channel Preferences**. They are off for every inbox until you turn them on, and each works on its own.

![The Hide from All Conversations and Outbound only switches under Channel Preferences](../../.gitbook/assets/guides/send-only-inbox-switches.jpg)

## Hide from All Conversations

Turn this on and the inbox's conversations leave every view that mixes inboxes together:

* the **Mine**, **Unassigned** and **All** tabs of **All Conversations**, and their counts
* **Mentions**, **Participating** and **Unattended**
* team and label views
* folders, unless the folder filters on that inbox
* search results for conversations and messages

The inbox itself stays in the sidebar under **Channels**. Open it there and you see everything in it, exactly as before. Contacts still show their conversations on the contact page, notifications still arrive, and reports do not change.

![A hidden inbox opened from the Channels list still shows all of its conversations](../../.gitbook/assets/guides/send-only-inbox-channel-view.jpg)

Use this for a channel nobody needs to watch day to day. If a customer does reply to a hidden inbox, the reply lands in that inbox: open it from **Channels** to see it, or use the next switch to stop replies coming in at all.

## Outbound only

Turn this on and the inbox becomes a one-way channel. Messages customers send to it are discarded before they reach anyone: no conversation opens, nothing is assigned, and no reply goes back to the customer. Everything you send still works. Templates, Blasts, reminders and replies go out as before, and delivery and read ticks still update.

Use this for a number or channel that only ever sends. Turn it off again and replies start landing in the inbox as normal; messages customers sent while it was on are not kept.

Leave this switch off on a Website live-chat inbox. Visitors can only ever write to you through the widget, so an outbound-only widget simply rejects their messages.

## Turning the switches on

1. Go to **Settings → Inboxes** and click the inbox.
2. On the **Settings** tab, scroll down to **Channel Preferences**.
3. Turn on **Hide from All Conversations**, **Outbound only**, or both.
4. Click **Update**.

## Related

* [Inboxes and channels](/settings/inboxes-and-channels)
* [Blasting](/campaigns/campaigns)
* [The WhatsApp Templates library](/settings/whatsapp-template-library)
* [Managing Conversations](/conversations/managing-conversations)

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Source: https://help.mampuai.com/settings/send-only-inboxes