Shopify Inbox

Have been using Shopify Inbox for years with no issues. The latest update is completely unusable. No way to customise the look of it properly, no back buttons for customers to return to, the design makes no sense and there is too much information to fill in, in order to start the chat. Customer contact has dropped close to zero after this update defeating the whole point of having the website chat. Please provide an option to revert back to the old version.

Shopify Inbox should be connected to the major sales channels of Email, SMS, WhatsApp.

This app isn't designed correctly because it should be integrated with the channels that Shopify Messaging is using.

Ideally when you send a promotion, you can just allow customers to message you back and convert them directly in chat.

The PMs here should look at how ManyChat works and build a more streamlined integration between Shopify Messaging and Inbox.

This should also integrate with other sales channels like FB Messenger or IG DMs.

There should be automation features where you can send leads to the cart directly from a DM.

If the customer sent a message without leaving an email or a phone number, we cannot follow up with the customer once he/she went offline. For this reason alone, I stopped using inbox.

The problem above is solved on 26 Aug 2026. We are back on shopify inbox again.

Just one thing, when the customer went offline, and received an email to view the converstaion, if the customer is using another device and click on view the converstation, he/she will not be able to see any previous messages. Not a big issue.

Overall, Shopify Inbox works pretty well and I’m happy with it. The main issue is the z-index/layering of the chat activation button.

The chat button often overlaps or covers other important elements on the storefront, such as the cart drawer, Quick Add buttons, and email pop-up windows. It would be great if Shopify could provide better control over the chat button’s z-index or update its default layering behavior so it doesn’t interfere with other storefront elements.

Everything else is pretty good — this is just a small but quite annoying UI issue that I hope can be improved in a future update.

The new AI version of this app is not as good as the previous version. Despite creating several custom FAQ answers detailing the store location and having it select the correct answer in the test feature, I can not get the AI to give the store address when asking from the customer side of the app.

The recent Shopify Inbox update has made chat significantly worse for our small business, and I’m hoping Shopify takes the merchant feedback seriously.

We’re a small, family-owned store, and the owners personally answer customer chats. Live chat is an important part of how we help people before they purchase, so being able to understand who we’re talking to and keep a conversation together matters a lot.

Before this update, a visitor could give us their first name before starting a conversation, optionally leave an email address so we could reply if they left the site, and we could see useful context such as their location, cart, and customer/order information when available.

Since the update, we’ve run into several major problems:

1. Visitors who don’t sign into Shop come through as “Shopify Visitor” with virtually no useful identity or context.

2. We no longer get a first name before chat, which makes multiple conversations much harder to keep organized.

3. We lose useful information such as location and cart contents unless the customer signs into Shop.

4. Customers seem to get dropped from conversations constantly. If they close the chat window or leave the site, they often appear to go offline and then come back in a new conversation/thread.

5. Because those conversations are being separated, a returning customer may think they are continuing the conversation we were already having, while on our end they can look like a completely different anonymous visitor.

6. Even when a visitor does sign in, we have experienced cases where their previous purchases from our store still are not visible to us in Inbox.

7. The result is that we can spend part of a conversation trying to figure out whether this is the same person we were just helping, what they were considering buying, or whether they have already purchased from us.

8. Requiring someone to create or sign into a Shop account just to provide basic identity and shopping context adds unnecessary friction for customers who simply want to ask a question before making a purchase.

This is not just a cosmetic change to the chat widget. It has materially reduced the information available to merchants and made conversation continuity much less reliable.

The previous system worked extremely well for a small business like ours: collect a first name, make email optional, preserve the visitor’s conversation, show us their shopping context, and allow us to help them without forcing them to create an account.

I understand Shopify’s desire to improve verified customer identity and security, but merchants should have the option to choose the previous, lower-friction experience.

Please restore the ability to collect a visitor’s first name with optional email, maintain continuity for returning visitors, and give merchants access to the cart, location, and customer/order context we previously had.

Shopify Inbox used to be one of the most useful tools we had for providing personal customer service. This update has made that considerably harder.

The new upgrade is extremely frustrating. Why are you forcing customers to sign in just to get an answer? This is a huge turn-off and adds an unnecessary barrier to what should be a simple customer service interaction.

There is also no back button, so once a customer has viewed one Instant Answer, they cannot return to the previous options without refreshing the entire website. Realistically, at that point many customers will simply leave the site. This is a significant step backwards in terms of usability.

The app’s usefulness was greatly diminished when they stopped gathering emails. Visitors chatting with us are now not getting responses because we have no way of following up. Not everyone wants to login to chat, either.

We’ll have to find a different solution.

Very Disappointing Update – Not User Friendly

The latest Shopify Inbox update is a major step backward. It feels completely unintuitive and has removed the basic navigation and menu options that made the app useful.

There is no proper navigation, no easy menu for finding instant answers, and basic functionalities are unnecessarily difficult to access. It feels like the development team has focused too much on AI and forgotten the fundamental needs of users.

AI should enhance the user experience, not replace basic navigation and essential functionalities. Users shouldn't have to struggle, log in, or depend entirely on AI just to find simple answers or access common features.

Honestly, I don't see much value in using the app in its current form. This update is frustrating, confusing, and a significant downgrade from the previous experience.

Was a 1-star, edited back to 4-star! Shopify has fixed the customer log-in requirement! HURRAY! Now we have an option to collect Name & Email only. This is a great move Shopify. Only room for improvement would be handoff from AI agent to Human, we turned it off only due to not knowing what the agent was up to - otherwise it actually did everything great.