Using Canvas Inbox to Send & Receive Messages

Canvas has a built in messaging system called Inbox that you can use to communicate with your instructors and colleagues.

Canvas Inbox can be used to:

Send a private message to your instructor
Send a message to someone in your course or group
Send a message to yourself (displays in your Sent folder)
Reply to messages from others in your course
Filter conversations by course or type
View and reply to assignment submission comments

Open Inbox

On the Global Navigation Link, click on Inbox.

If the Inbox link includes a numbered indicator, the indicator shows how many unread messages you have in your Inbox. Once you read the new messages, the indicator will disappear.

View Toolbar

The toolbar includes global message options. To load conversations, filter your messages by course or group [1] and type [2]. Filtering by type lets you filter messages by Inbox, Unread, Starred, Sent, Archived, and Submission Comments. You can compose a message at any time using the compose icon [3]. You can also search for conversations by user in the search by user field [4].

Once you have selected a conversation, you can use the other options in the toolbar to:

Reply to a conversation
Reply-all to a conversation
Archive a conversation
Delete a conversation
Forward, mark a conversation as read or unread, and star conversations

View Inbox Panels

Conversations for your selected course and Inbox filter appear in the left Inbox panel.

View Conversations

The Inbox is organized chronologically from newest to oldest with the newest conversations appearing on top [1] and the older conversations at the bottom. You can manually mark a conversation as read or unread by hovering over the conversation and clicking the circle to the left of the conversation [2]. To star a conversation, hover over the conversation and click the star to the right of the conversation [3].

View Conversation Thread

When you select a conversation [1], all messages in the conversations thread appear in the right Inbox panel [2].

Manage Conversation Thread

Within each conversation, you can reply, reply-all, forward, or delete the entire conversation thread [1]. You can also hover over an individual message and use the same commands within the individual message [2].