What This Update Actually Is
HubSpot upgraded the CRM sidebar inside the Conversations Inbox. The sidebar is the panel on the right side of every conversation that shows contact info, deals, tickets, and past activity.
The old framework was limited. Admins had minimal control, and whatever layout humans cobbled together at the individual level was fragile and inconsistent across the team.
The new framework changes that. Admins can now configure the sidebar for all users at once or build separate views for specific teams. All the original cards are still there, and portal-level settings carry over. But there's a real caveat: individual user customizations, like drag-and-drop card ordering and custom property selections on contact and ticket cards, do not carry forward.
Why HubSpot Shipped This
Inbox users have been asking for this for a while. The core problem is straightforward: every team has a different conversation context. A support team needs ticket history front and center. A sales team needs open deals and last activity. A service team doing renewals needs contract info and health scores.
The old sidebar couldn't be shaped around those needs at the admin level. Humans were left to configure it themselves, which meant inconsistency, missed context, and a lot of wasted scrolling during live conversations.
HubSpot also stopped supporting user-level property selections back in June 2024. This update completes that transition. If your humans configured those preferences more than two years ago, they'll see a reset. For most portals, the impact is minimal. But it's worth a heads-up before someone on your team wonders why their sidebar looks different.
How to Use It Step by Step
The rollout is automatic. No action is required to receive the update. But you'll want to configure it intentionally rather than let it sit on defaults.
- Go to your inbox settings and locate Sidebar Customization in the navigation.
- Choose Default View to set the layout for all inbox users, or select Create Team View to build a separate sidebar for a specific team.
- Inside the sidebar editor, add or remove cards, reorder them, and create custom association cards or property cards.
- Decide whether to enable user-level customization on property cards. This is now a toggle admins control, not an open door for every individual.
- Note that the Ticket card is still customized separately through ticket object preview customization settings, not inside inbox settings. HubSpot says that will change in a future update.
- Communicate the change to your team. Let them know card ordering may have reset and show them how to reorder manually if you've enabled that option.
One important scope note: sidebar changes apply across all inboxes. There's no per-inbox configuration yet. Plan your layout with that constraint in mind.
What It Touches in Your HubSpot Strategy
This update is primarily a Service Hub change, but its ripple effects reach further than the inbox.
If you're using the Conversations Inbox for sales conversations alongside service tickets, your sidebar layout needs to surface different properties for each use case. That's now possible with team views. A sales team view can prioritize deal stage, last meeting booked, and owner. A support team view can lead with ticket priority, SLA status, and recent conversations.
Custom property cards are the hidden power here. If you've built contact or company properties that carry key business context, you can now surface them directly in the sidebar without making humans hunt through the full record. That's real time savings during live conversations.
Key Takeaway
Team views let you build role-specific sidebar layouts without touching the default view. Set up a sales team view and a support team view separately so each group sees the properties that actually matter during their conversations.
This also connects to how HubSpot is thinking about contextual data across its tools. If you've been following updates like Breeze Canvas surfacing relevant CRM info while writing emails, you'll see a consistent theme: HubSpot wants the right data in front of humans at the exact moment they need it, without extra clicks.
The update also matters for RevOps teams thinking about data consistency. When humans can freely drag cards and override property selections, you end up with a patchwork of sidebar configurations across your team. The new framework puts admin intent back in charge, which means more consistent data visibility and fewer support escalations caused by missing context.
If you're also managing Customer Agent segments for automated conversation handling, the sidebar update pairs well with personalizing conversations by audience through Customer Agent Segments. When both are configured intentionally, your team handles human conversations with full context while automation handles the rest.
Key Takeaway
Custom property cards are not just cosmetic. Surface the properties your team actually uses during conversations and you cut the time spent jumping between the inbox and the full contact or deal record.
Who Should Care Most
This update matters most to the humans and teams listed below.
- HubSpot Super Admins who configure the portal for their teams and want the inbox sidebar to reflect their actual workflow, not HubSpot's generic defaults.
- Service teams handling a high volume of conversations daily, where every extra click to find context costs real time.
- RevOps leaders who care about data consistency and want to stop relying on individual humans to configure their own tools correctly.
- Growing companies using HubSpot across multiple functions, where a sales team and a support team both live in the Conversations Inbox and need different sidebar layouts.
- Admins at any HubSpot tier, because this update is available to all customers across all products and pricing levels.
George's Take
We've audited a lot of portals where the Conversations Inbox is technically set up but nobody has ever touched the sidebar intentionally. It's running on defaults, everyone has dragged things around differently, and the result is a team where half the humans can see the deal stage during a conversation and half can't. That's a process problem dressed up as a tool problem. This update removes the excuse. Admins now have real leverage to build a consistent, context-rich inbox experience for every team member, not just the ones who figured it out on their own.
“The sidebar isn't decoration. It's the difference between a conversation rep who has context and one who's fumbling through tabs while a customer waits. Now admins can actually fix that.”
If you want help auditing your Conversations Inbox setup or building a sidebar configuration that actually matches how your teams work, we're ready to dig in with you. Book a strategy call with Sidekick Strategies and let's make your HubSpot portal work the way your business does.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will the new HubSpot Conversations Inbox sidebar update happen automatically?
Yes. The sidebar framework upgrade rolls out automatically. No admin or user action is required before or during the rollout. However, admins should log in and configure the new sidebar settings intentionally, since the update resets user-level card ordering and some property selections back to admin or system defaults.
What user customizations are lost when the new Conversations Inbox sidebar rolls out?
User-level card ordering set by drag and drop will reset. User-level property selections on the About This Contact and Ticket cards will also revert to admin-configured defaults. HubSpot stopped supporting user-level property selections in June 2024, so only users who set those preferences more than two years ago are affected.
Can different teams have different Conversations Inbox sidebar layouts in HubSpot?
Yes. Admins with Super Admin permissions can create team-specific sidebar views inside inbox settings under Sidebar Customization. Select Create Team View to build a layout for a specific team. The Default View sets the layout for all users who aren't assigned a team-specific view.
How do I customize the Ticket card in the Conversations Inbox sidebar?
The Ticket card can't be edited directly from inbox settings yet. To customize which properties appear on it, go to ticket object preview customization settings. HubSpot has confirmed a future update will bring Ticket card customization into inbox settings alongside the other sidebar controls.
Does the new Conversations Inbox sidebar apply to all inboxes or just one?
Sidebar changes apply across all inboxes in your portal. There's no per-inbox configuration in this release. Plan your default view and team views with that in mind, since the same layout will appear regardless of which specific inbox a conversation comes through.
Which HubSpot tiers get the new Conversations Inbox sidebar customization?
The Conversations Inbox is available to all HubSpot customers across all products and tiers, including Free and Starter. The new sidebar customization framework is part of that same availability, so any portal can access it. Super Admin permissions are required to configure the sidebar settings.
