Contact Visibility and Sharing

Contact access determines which teammates can find a contact, see its saved information and notes, and use its name to recognize matching calls and messages. You can make a contact available throughout your organization, keep it private, or share it with selected people and shared inboxes.

What contact access controls

Contact access determines which saved contacts you can open. A teammate with access can:

• Find the contact in Contacts, search results, and contact selectors.
• View its name, phone number, email, company, and role.
• Read its existing notes.
• Use the saved name to identify matching calls and messages.

Viewing and editing are different permissions. If your only access is as a Viewer of a shared inbox, you can read contacts shared with that inbox but cannot change their details or post notes. You may have additional access through another sharing choice, such as Workspace access or a share to your own personal inbox.

Source details imported from a connected service remain read-only. Teammates allowed to work with the contact can still add Waveline notes. Changing who can access a contact is a separate permission; see Who can change contact access.

Deleting or merging a manually managed contact requires ownership, Workspace access, or working participation as a Member or Manager of a shared inbox it is shared with. A direct share to your personal inbox can allow editing without allowing deletion or merging. Changing contact access does not change inbox permissions or delete the contact.

Choose an access level

Workspace

Everyone in your Waveline organization can find and work with the contact, subject to their role permissions. Use Workspace access for contacts that may be needed by multiple teams.

Private

Only you can access the contact. Private access is available for contacts assigned to you and requires an active personal inbox.

Specific people and inboxes

Choose individual teammates or shared inboxes that should have access. Selecting a teammate shares the contact through that person's personal inbox. Selecting a shared inbox makes the contact available through that inbox; Viewers can read it, while Members and Managers can work with it, subject to restrictions such as source-managed details.

Contact access follows changes to the inbox's participants and Viewers. Someone who loses access to that inbox loses the contact access provided by it, but may still have access through another share or Workspace access. See Inbox roles.

Imported contact visibility

Contacts imported from a connected service follow the connection's scope rather than the sharing controls for manually created contacts. Change the scope from the connection when your role permits it. See Change scope for the available personal, managed-inbox, and workspace choices and the settings illustration.

Read the access badge in the Contacts list

In the web Contacts list, each contact shows a short access badge:

• Team: everyone in the workspace can see the contact.
• Shared: another teammate owns the contact and shared it with you.
• Private: the contact isn’t visible to the whole workspace and isn’t owned by another teammate. This includes contacts limited to selected people or inboxes, such as imported contacts whose connection is limited to Customer Support.

The badge is a summary. To see exactly who can see a contact, open it and check Access. For a contact limited to selected inboxes, Access lists those inboxes.

Which option should I choose?

• Use Workspace for organization-wide customers, vendors, and frequently used business contacts.
• Use Private for a contact that only you need.
• Use Specific people and inboxes when a contact belongs to one department, location, team, or limited group.

Before you begin

• Create or open an external contact.
• Decide which teammates need the contact information and notes.
• Confirm that the relevant shared inboxes already have the correct participants.
• Confirm that you can change the contact's access.

Who can change contact access

For a manually managed contact, the teammate responsible for it—usually its creator—can change who has access. An organization Owner or Admin can also change access when the contact is already visible to them. An organization role does not automatically make another teammate's private contacts visible. Contacts imported from a connected service follow that connection's scope instead.

Other teammates may be able to edit the contact's information without being able to change who can see it.

Set access while adding a contact

Select access while creating the contact on either app. On web, the initial choice is saved when the contact has a name and valid phone number; later access changes save as you make them. On mobile, review access before selecting Save. Check the choice before completing a contact that should not be available throughout the organization.

See Adding and Managing Contacts for instructions on creating a contact.

Change contact access on the web app

1. Select Contacts from the dashboard sidebar.
2. Select the external contact to open its details.
3. Select Access.
4. Choose Everyone, People & shared inboxes, or Private.
5. If you choose People & shared inboxes, select the people and shared inboxes that should have access.
6. Select Done to close the access window.

Changes save as you make them. The access window also shows which people always have access and cannot be removed. This keeps the teammate responsible for the contact from losing access to it.

Change contact access on the mobile app

1. Select Contacts from the bottom tab bar near Dial.
2. Open the external contact.
3. On the Details tab, find Access.
4. Choose Workspace, Private, or Specific people and inboxes.
5. When using specific access, select the appropriate people and shared inboxes.
6. Return to the contact and select Save.

What happens after access changes

• Newly included teammates can find and open the contact.
• Shared-inbox Members and Managers can work with the contact through that inbox; Viewers can read it.
• Teammates who lose one share may still have access through another share or Workspace access.
• Teammates who lose all access can no longer find or open the contact or read its notes.
• Calls and messages continue to follow their existing inbox permissions.
• The contact's access setting remains consistent between web and mobile.

Why can't I remove someone?

When access is limited, Waveline always keeps the contact available to the teammate responsible for it. On web, the access window names them (for example, You always have access.). On mobile, they stay checked and cannot be cleared.

If an Owner or Admin changes access for someone else's contact, Waveline may also keep that Owner or Admin selected so they do not immediately lose access after saving.

A required selection does not make the contact available throughout the workspace. Only required people and the other selected people or shared inboxes can access it.

Best practices

• Use Workspace access only when the contact is useful across the organization.
• Share department-specific contacts with the appropriate shared inbox.
• Use individual access when only particular teammates need the contact.
• Review contact access when teammates change roles or inbox participation.
• Check imported contacts that should not remain organization-wide.
• Keep sensitive details out of contact notes unless appropriate for everyone with access.

Troubleshooting

Related pages

• Contacts Overview
• Adding and Managing Contacts
• Importing Contacts
• Inbox Participants
• Roles and Permissions