Inbox metrics

Jul 27, 2026
Knowledge

Procedure Steps

Article updated: July 09, 2026

Inbox metrics

Inbox metrics help you dig deeper into the activity and performance of your agents, teams, channels, and topics in the last 18 months. We report metrics in the timezone selected in your account.

Audience: Advanced and Enterprise Inbox admins. Want more Hootsuite features? Upgrade your plan.

This article goes over the metrics available in Analytics for Inbox. Use CTRL+F (CMD +F on Mac) to search content in this article.

Transitioning from Team metrics to Inbox metrics? Check out this table of metrics to make the transition easier.

Note: Analytics collects up to 25 months of historical data; data older than 25 months isn't available.

How Inbox calculates metrics

First response time counts the time between when a conversation becomes available in the queue for a human agent and the human agent replies. When working with virtual agents, a conversation becomes available in the queue for a human agent when it is not assigned to a virtual agent, virtual agent ownership is removed, a virtual agent hands it over to a human agent, or it is manually assigned from a virtual agent to a human agent.

Handle time metrics count the time between a lock and an unlock event for an agent in a conversation.

Metrics available for Inbox

Note: When filtering metrics by Post type, your options are Organic, Paid, and No post type. Hootsuite assigns No post type to the following messages:

Private messages
Messages where we cannot correctly determine the post type.

Metrics for Inbox
Metric	Description
Agent available time > Member	The total time an agent has an Available status
Agent away time > Member	The total time an agent has an Away status
Agent handle time table	A list of your teams’ members and their time metrics, such as average handle time, total handle time, and cherry picking time
Agent overview table	A list of your teams’ members and their key performance metrics, such as availability, average handle time, and replies sent
Agent productivity table	A list of your teams’ members and their advanced productivity metrics, such as availability, resolved conversations, and topics and tags applied to messages
Average agent first response time	The average first response time of an agent during your selected time frame. Counts resolved conversations only, regardless of when they were resolved
Average contacts helped per member	The average number of contacts helped per agent
Average conversation response time	The average conversation response time of all resolved conversations
Average conversation response time SLA	The average of all Conversation response times in channels that have an SLA policy enabled and for resolved conversations
Average first response time SLA	The average of all First response times in channels that have an SLA policy enabled and for resolved conversations
Average handle time	The average elapsed time between conversations being opened and then moved to either the Pending or Resolved queue. conversation must have a reply for Handle time to be calculated
Average handle time per contact	The average handle time per contact
Average inbound messages per contact	The average number of inbound messages per contact
Average outbound messages per contact	The average number of outbound messages per contact
Average resolution time	The average time it took to resolve conversations during the selected date range. Only includes conversations opened by customers who received a reply in Inbox
CSAT	The average CSAT score for all resolved conversations
CSAT surveys sent	The total number of CSAT surveys sent
Cherry-picking time	The total elapsed time between when an agent opens a conversation and the same agent closes it without sending a reply or changing the conversation status
Conversation Response Time SLA	All Conversation response time SLA events for resolved conversations
Daily inbound message volume > Hour	The average number of inbound messages per day of week and hour of day
First response time SLA	All first response time SLA events for resolved conversations
First responses table	A list of your teams' first responses to unresolved conversations and their metrics, such as first response time and SLA status.
Handle time	The total elapsed time between when an agent opens a conversation and the same agent sends a reply
Inbound messages	The total number of inbound messages. Includes the following: Comments - Replies to your connected social account posts. Posts - Messages posted to your social accounts and posts mentioning your social accounts. Search queries - Messages pulled into Inbox via a search query (see Use queries to listen to X conversations).
No-reply time	The total elapsed time between when an agent opens a conversation and the same agent closes it without sending a reply
Number of inbound Messages > Emoji	The number of inbound messages per emoji
Number of outbound Messages > Emoji	The number of outbound messages per emoji
Outbound messages	The total number of outbound messages
Overall responses table	A list of your teams' responses and their metrics, such as total handle time, conversation resolution time, and first response Note: The Inbound message column is only populated when an agent response is initiated by a direct inbound customer message. If the conversation is handled by a virtual agent or autoresponder before being passed to a human agent, this field may appear blank. The inbound message is still present in Inbox and in exports.
Replies sent table	A list of replies sent by your teams in the selected date range and the tags applied to the messages
Resolved conversations	The total number of conversations resolved
Resolved conversations > CSAT Score	The total number of conversations resolved per CSAT score
Resolved conversations per number of messages > Number of Messages	Resolved conversations grouped by number of messages in each conversation
Resolved conversations table	A list of conversations resolved in the selected time frame and their metrics, such as first response time and total resolution time
SLA	Overall SLA performance (First response time SLA and Conversation response SLA), based on SLA events. The graph displays all SLA events for resolved conversations. Events marked as OK indicate messages (not complete conversations) that someone responded to in the SLA timeframe
Satisfied customers	The combined total of all CSAT scores with a 4 or 5 divided by the total number of CSAT responses
Started conversations	The total number of conversations started
Tags applied	The total number of tags added by individual agents. Tags applied is a global metric and will does not change with channel filter selection
Team handle time table	A list of your teams and their time metrics, such as average handle time, total handle time, and cherry picking time
Team overview table	A list of your teams and their key performance metrics, such as handle time, CSAT, and resolved conversation
Team productivity table	A list of your teams and their advanced productivity metrics, such as contacts helped, resolved conversations, and topics and tags applied to messages
Topics applied	The total number of topics added by individual agents. Topics applied is a global metric and will does not change with channel filter selection
Total conversation responses > Duration	The total number of responses for resolved conversations, grouped by duration
Total first responses > Duration	The total number of first responses for resolved conversations, grouped by duration
Total messages	The combined total of all inbound and outbound messages
Total messages per hour > Hour	The combined total of all inbound and outbound messages by hour of the day
Total resolutions > Duration	The number of conversations resolved during the selected date range, grouped by duration. Only includes conversations opened by customers who received a reply in Inbox
Unique contacts	The total number of unique contacts
User utilization	The percentage of reply handle time and no-reply handle time compared to the available time

Transitioning from Team metrics to Inbox metrics

Use the following table to find the Inbox metrics that correspond to the Team activity metrics in Analytics reports and other metrics you previously used in the Team performance view.

Inbox metrics and Team activity metrics
Team metric	Inbox metric	What's changed
Assignments created	Started conversations	Unlike Assignments created, Started conversations reports on all of your messages, including those unassigned to an agent
Assignments resolved	Resolved conversations	Both metrics measure the number of conversations resolved
First response time	Average first response time	The Inbox metric only counts conversations resolved on channels with an SLA set up
Handling time (in Hootsuite reports)	Handle time	The Inbox metric only counts conversations with at least one response
Handling time (in Team performance)	Average handle time	The Inbox metric only counts conversations with at least one response
Overall response time	Average conversation response time	Both metrics measure the time it takes an agent to respond to a customer’s message
Pickup time	First response time SLA	Both metrics measure how long it takes a customer to receive a response. The new Inbox metric also measures it against targets you can define for each channel
Published messages	Outbound messages	The Inbox metric counts only the number of messages sent by your team’s agents
Resolution time	Average resolution time	Both metrics count the time it takes to resolve a conversation
Conversation threads	-	This metric has been removed. As an alternative, you can use the Started conversation metric
Overall responses table	Replies sent table	All of these metrics show the replies sent by your agents
Resolved assignments table	Resolved conversations table	Both metrics show the conversations resolved by your agents
Messages Responses	Outbound messages	Messages and Responses are now Outbound messages in Inbox
Messages received	Inbound messages	Both metrics count the number of messages received by your team

Title

Inbox metrics

URL Name

inbox-metrics

Inbox metrics

Information

Inbox metrics

How Inbox calculates metrics

Metrics available for Inbox

Transitioning from Team metrics to Inbox metrics