Overview
When your team is handling a shared inbox, there are moments when you need to loop in a colleague, flag something important, or ask a quick internal question — without the customer ever knowing. Private notes let you do exactly that.
A private note is an internal comment you can leave inside any conversation thread. It is visible only to your Heymarket team members and never sent to the contact. You can @mention a teammate in a private note to send them a direct notification and bring them into the thread instantly.
| 💡 Note: Private notes are excluded from AI Conversation Summaries, so they will not appear when a teammate requests a summary of a chat. |
How Private Notes Appear in the Inbox
Private notes are displayed inline within the conversation thread — exactly where the exchange with the contact is happening. To make it easy to distinguish them from outgoing messages, private notes appear with a yellow highlight. Any teammate who opens the thread will be able to see all private notes left by the team.
How to Add a Private Note
You can add a private note to any open conversation from the Heymarket web app, iOS app, or Android app.
- Open a conversation in your inbox.
- In the message compose area at the bottom of the thread, type @ to switch into private note mode. The compose area will indicate that you are writing an internal note.
- Type your message. You can write a note on its own, or include an @mention to notify a specific teammate (see below).
- Press Send. The note will appear in the thread outlined in yellow and will not be delivered to the contact.
| ⚠️ Important: Pressing Send on a private note will never send a message to the customer. Only your team members can see it. |
How to @Mention a Teammate
@mentions are the fastest way to pull a colleague into a conversation. When you @mention someone, they receive an immediate in-app notification alerting them they have been tagged, along with a link directly to that thread.
- While composing a private note, type @ followed by your teammate’s name.
- Select the correct teammate from the dropdown that appears.
- Finish your message and press Send.
- The tagged teammate will receive a notification and can click it to open the conversation and see your note.
You can @mention more than one person in a single private note. Each tagged team member will receive their own notification.
When to Use Private Notes
Private notes are useful any time your team needs to coordinate internally without interrupting the customer’s experience. Common examples:
- Asking a colleague for context: "@Sarah, have you spoken with this customer before? They’re asking about their March invoice."
- Flagging urgency: "@Manager, this customer has been waiting 2 days — needs priority follow-up."
- Leaving handoff notes: "Spoke with John on the phone — he’s happy with the resolution but may follow up on shipping."
- Escalating a conversation: "@BillingTeam, this contact is asking about a refund outside my scope — can you take over?"
- Sharing internal reminders: "Do not offer a discount here — account is flagged for review."
Frequently Asked Questions
Can the customer see private notes?
No. Private notes are completely invisible to the contact. They only appear in the thread view for your team members inside Heymarket.
Can I edit or delete a private note after sending it?
Private notes follow the same message retention rules as regular messages on your account. Check your Message Retention settings in Administration if you need to review what can be deleted.
Will @mentions work if the teammate is not assigned to that inbox?
Yes. A teammate can receive an @mention notification even if they are not the assigned agent for the conversation. They will be able to view the thread to read the note and respond.
Do private notes appear in Heymarket Reports?
Private notes are not counted as sent messages and do not affect your outgoing message metrics or campaign reports.
Are private notes included in message exports?
When exporting conversation history for auditing purposes, private notes are included in the export and are clearly labeled as internal comments.