Description
NaveenCodes Smart Contact Inbox turns your WordPress admin into a proper inbox for Contact Form 7 submissions. Every CF7 form submission is automatically captured, threaded by sender, and displayed in a clean email-style interface — no external services, no SMTP plugin, no paid add-ons required.
Key Features
- Centralized inbox — All CF7 form submissions appear in one place, grouped by form name.
- Threaded conversations — Messages from the same email address are automatically grouped into a conversation thread, just like email.
- Chat-style thread view — Visitor messages appear on the left, admin replies on the right, with timestamps.
- Direct reply — Reply to visitors straight from the WordPress admin using WordPress’s built-in
wp_mail()function. No SMTP plugin needed. - Status tracking — Messages show New, Read, or Replied status at a glance.
- Unread badge — Admin menu badge and admin-bar notification update in real time.
- Filter & search — Filter the inbox by form name, sender email, or keyword.
- Pagination — Handles large inboxes without slowdown.
- Bulk delete — Remove multiple conversations at once from the inbox table.
- AJAX replies — Replies are sent and saved without a page reload.
- Settings page — Toggle the reply feature on/off, customise the reply subject format, and override the From email address.
- Debug page — Built-in diagnostic tool showing CF7’s raw field data, system status, and a one-click test to verify the inbox is working.
How It Works
- A visitor submits any Contact Form 7 form on your site.
- NaveenCodes captures the submission (name, email, message, form title).
- The message appears in NaveenCodes All Messages in your WP admin.
- Click the message to open the full thread view.
- Type a reply and click Send Reply — the email is sent via
wp_mail()and saved to the thread.
Thread Detection
NaveenCodes detects the sender’s email by scanning the value of every CF7 field, not just the field name. This means it works with any CF7 field naming convention automatically.
No External Dependencies
This plugin uses only WordPress core APIs:
wp_mail()for sending replies- Custom Post Type for message storage
- WordPress admin AJAX for real-time actions
No database tables are created. All data is stored as standard WordPress posts and post meta.
Privacy
All submission data is stored in your own WordPress database. Nothing is sent to any external server. On plugin uninstall, all stored messages and options are permanently removed.
Screenshots
All Messages — Inbox table with sender, form badge, message preview, date, and status columns. 
Conversations list — Grouped view showing each thread’s sender, last message date, and unread indicator.
Installation
Via WordPress Admin (recommended)
- Go to Plugins Add New.
- Search for NaveenCodes Smart Contact Inbox.
- Click Install Now, then Activate.
Manual Upload
- Download the plugin ZIP file.
- Go to Plugins Add New Upload Plugin.
- Choose the ZIP file and click Install Now, then Activate.
FTP / cPanel
- Extract the ZIP and upload the plugin folder to
/wp-content/plugins/. - Activate via Plugins Installed Plugins.
After Activation
- Ensure Contact Form 7 is installed and active.
- Visit NaveenCodes Settings to configure preferences.
- Submit any CF7 form — the message will appear in Contact Inbox All Messages within seconds.
FAQ
-
The current version hooks into CF7’s submission system. Support for other form plugins (WPForms, Gravity Forms, Fluent Forms) is planned for future releases.
-
Does it need an SMTP plugin?
-
No. Replies are sent using WordPress’s native
wp_mail(). If your hosting environment needs an SMTP plugin (e.g. WP Mail SMTP) for reliable delivery, NaveenCodes will automatically benefit from it — no special configuration required. -
My form submissions appear but nothing shows in the inbox. What’s wrong?
-
Go to NaveenCodes Debug. You will see a raw dump of the last CF7 submission’s fields. Check that at least one field value is tagged EMAIL — that’s what NaveenCodes uses as the sender email. If no field is tagged, your form may not have an email field, or the submitted value is not a valid email address.
You can also click Inject Test Message on the Debug page to verify the inbox and database are working correctly.
-
How are conversations grouped?
-
Messages are grouped by the sender’s email address. All submissions from the same address, regardless of which CF7 form they used, land in the same conversation thread.
-
Can I track replies from visitors back to me?
-
Every outgoing reply email includes a unique thread ID in the subject line (e.g.
[thread_abc123]). If you set up a mail-parsing webhook or pipe to receive incoming email, NaveenCodes can match replies back to the correct thread via this ID. The data structure is ready — webhook/pipe integration is a planned feature. -
No. Messages are stored as a private Custom Post Type (
naveencodes_message) using standard WordPress post and post meta tables. No custom tables are created. -
What happens to my data if I uninstall the plugin?
-
All stored messages and plugin settings are permanently deleted on uninstall.
-
NaveenCodes stores only the data submitted via your CF7 forms. All data resides on your own server. Nothing is transmitted to external services. You are responsible for adding appropriate disclosure in your site’s privacy policy regarding the storage of form submission data.
Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
Contributors & Developers
“NaveenCodes Smart Contact Inbox for Contact Form 7” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
Translate “NaveenCodes Smart Contact Inbox for Contact Form 7” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
1.0.2
- Renamed admin menu label to “Inboxly” for a cleaner, more familiar look.
1.0.1
- Added one-time silent migration: existing data from the legacy Inboxly plugin (inboxly_message post type and inboxly_settings) is automatically carried over on first activation.
1.0.0 — 2024-11-01
- Initial release.
- Captures all Contact Form 7 submissions into a private inbox.
- Threaded conversation view grouped by sender email.
- Chat-style bubble UI (visitor left / admin right).
- AJAX reply using wp_mail() with HTML email template.
- New / Read / Replied status tracking per message.
- Unread badge in admin menu and admin bar.
- Filter by form name, sender email, or keyword search.
- Bulk delete from inbox table.
- Settings: toggle reply, subject format, From email override.
- Debug page: system status, raw CF7 field dump, test message injection.
- Fully translatable (Text Domain: naveencodes-smart-contact-inbox).
- No external services. No custom database tables.
- Uninstall cleanup removes all posts, meta, and options.