A team member's role controls which parts of Ellipsend they can see. Being an Inbox Agent controls whether they can reply to contacts. The two are separate. A team member with any role can open the inbox and read conversations, but until they're added as an Inbox Agent, they can't send messages and they can't be assigned contacts.

If you see this in the inbox, that's the reason:

You're not an Inbox Agent yet, so you can read conversations but not reply.

Nothing is broken. You have a login and a role, but you haven't been added to the Inbox Agents list yet.

You'll need Admin or Manager access.

They can reply from the inbox right away. No need to log out and back in.

Your plan sets how many Inbox Agents you can have. If you don't see a way to add one, every seat is in use. The Inbox Agent Seats card under the Settings menu shows how many you've used. To add more, click Purchase Inbox Agent Seats on that card. What each plan includes is in Inbox Agent Seats in the Settings guide.

The percentage next to each Inbox Agent only matters when Enable Auto-Assignment is on. It sets what share of new contacts each agent receives. Percentages across all agents need to total 100%.

An agent at 0% is still a full Inbox Agent. They can reply to any conversation and you can assign contacts to them manually. They just won't automatically receive new contacts. This is the right setup for a manager who jumps into conversations but isn't working new contacts all day.

Use the Cross-Platform tab to set one percentage per agent, or Per-Platform to split Instagram and Facebook separately (for example, one setter takes 100% of Instagram and another takes 100% of Facebook).

Open the same Edit window and click the trash icon next to their name. Ellipsend asks what to do with their contacts. Pick another agent, or pick Unassigned, then click Save Changes. They'll keep their login and role but go back to read-only in the inbox.