Choose Hiver in Gmail when the team wants shared email ownership and service deadlines while keeping Gmail as its daily workspace. The key purchase is the edition and tier: Hiver in Gmail is a Chrome extension on Gmail or Google Workspace, whereas Hiver Omni is a separate application. For a five-person team that needs warnings before a response deadline, evaluate Elite rather than stopping at the entry price.
Gmail ownership and collision awareness
Hiver adds shared conversation controls to Gmail. Its auto-assign-to-responder setting gives an unassigned email to the agent who replies, retaining that owner until reassignment. This applies to replies through the Hiver extension or mobile app; using Gmail’s native compose window does not trigger it. The distinction matters when a team mixes old and new habits.
Collision detection shows a banner naming a teammate who is drafting. Internal notes and mentions keep the discussion beside the customer thread. That establishes live coordination. Use the documented banner for live coordination and test send behavior separately. Define who sends the final answer when two people begin work together.
Urgent email and service clocks
Rules can route urgent keywords to a priority queue, tag customers and assign work. Time-based rules can notify a lead about an unassigned conversation or remind the assignee when a high-priority thread sits unchanged. These controls address unattended work more directly than adding an Urgent label alone.
Pro adds first-response and resolution SLAs. Pro and Elite business-hour templates include holidays and time zones. Due soon status and notifications require Elite; the interface also exposes exact due times and overdue views. Breach automations can notify the assignee and lead or move work to an escalation specialist. Configure the policy, alert recipients and notification settings together.
Record the promise separately
An acknowledgment and a promise to update a customer next Friday are different obligations. Hiver documents date custom fields for follow-ups, filters and automations, alongside date-based reminders. This is a documented way to record a conversation deadline. Demonstrate a personal task with an exact clock-time reminder using an acknowledged email that needs a later update.
Collaborators can view a thread and exchange internal notes through a dedicated space; they cannot view thread attachments. Price collaborators as replying seats until the account permissions show otherwise.
The five-person buying point
Annual rates start at $25 per user monthly. Five Growth seats total $125 monthly equivalent; five Pro seats $275; five Elite seats $425, or $5,100 annually. Elite is the documented tier for proactive SLA warnings. Compare that workflow against Missive’s explicit tasks and the shared-inbox shortlist before deciding which deadline model matches the team’s promises.