What Admins and Managers can each do in a Switchboard, area by area, how Admins can give or take away individual permissions, who the Owner is, and how to remove someone or change their role.
Everyone who works in a Switchboard is a member, and every member has one of two roles: Admin or Manager. Each role comes with a set of permissions, and an Admin can give a Manager extra permissions or take some away, person by person (see Permissions). This page is the reference for what each role can do across the whole product.
A Switchboard can have several Admins, and they all have exactly the same permissions. The earliest Admin - normally the person who created the Switchboard - is its owner of record, called the Owner throughout these docs. Owner isn't a separate role: the dashboard lists the Owner as an Admin, and you can't invite someone "as Owner".
The only difference is where some emails go. A few important emails are sent to the Owner rather than to every Admin: payment receipts, payment-failed notices, delete-connection codes, Meta's critical alerts, API problem reports, and setup reminders (see Emails each role receives). If the Owner leaves the Switchboard, steps down to Manager, or deletes their account, the remaining Admin who joined the Switchboard earliest becomes the Owner.
Each table covers one area of the product. Yes means the person can do it; View means they can see it but not change it. The Manager column shows the Manager defaults: an Admin can change any of them for one person (see Permissions), so a particular Manager may have more or less.
See Connections and API keys for how each of these works.
Every member, whatever their role, manages their own account in Settings: Profile (name, email address, connected sign-in accounts), Security (password, passkeys, two-factor authentication, active devices), Offers, and deleting the account.
Pages you can't open still show in the sidebar, greyed out with a lock; hovering one says "Ask an Admin for access". Opening one anyway (from a bookmark, say) takes you to Overview with a note that you don't have access. Buttons you can't use are greyed out with the same tooltip, and in the Inbox the reply box is switched off with "You can read this conversation but not reply."
Avox checks every permission on its servers too, so a hidden button is never the only protection: an action you're not allowed to take is refused with "You don't have permission to do this in this Switchboard. Ask an Admin for access." Billing actions are refused with "Only a Switchboard Admin can manage billing. Ask an Admin to make this change."
Each role starts from a set of permissions. Admins always have every permission - that can't be changed, so an Admin can never lock themselves (or another Admin) out. Managers start from the Manager defaults below, and an Admin can switch any permission on or off for one Manager without changing anyone else.
A few things stay with Admins whatever the permissions: changing roles, removing members, revoking invites, changing permissions, the Activity log, inviting another Admin, and pausing, resuming or deleting the Switchboard. Your own account (profile, security, deleting your account) is always yours.
Only an Admin can do this.
Open Settings > Switchboard > Members
Admins see a Permissions button in every row (on a phone it shows as a key icon).
Click Permissions next to the person
Their permissions open on the same page, grouped by area. Each one has a switch and a label: From role (the Manager default), Added for this person, or Removed for this person. For an Admin every switch is on and locked, with a note that Admins always have every permission.
Switch permissions on or off
Switching one on also switches on what it needs (for example Reply in the Inbox also turns on See the Inbox); switching one off also switches off what depends on it. Reset to role defaults puts every switch back to the Manager defaults. Nothing is saved yet.
Check the summary and save
Above the buttons, Before you save lists what the person will be able to do and what they will no longer be able to do. Click Save changes (or Discard changes). You see "[Name]'s permissions are updated".
What happens next:
Changing someone's role (for example making a Manager an Admin, or back) clears their individual permissions, so they start from the new role's defaults.
Open Settings > Switchboard > Members. Everyone can see it.
Admins also see a Permissions button and a remove button (an X) at the end of each row. A Manager whose permissions don't include See the team sees "You can't see this Switchboard's team. Ask an Admin for access." instead of the list.
Use Search members… to filter the list by name. If nothing matches, the list says "No members match that search."
Only an Admin can remove someone.
Open Settings > Switchboard > Members
Admins see a remove button (an X) at the end of every row except their own.
Click the X next to the person
They're removed straight away and you see "Member removed".
What happens next:
If the removal fails you see "Couldn't remove that member" - try again.
Any member - Admin or Manager - can leave:
Open Leave Switchboard
Make sure the Switchboard you want to leave is the one you're viewing. Open any Settings page and click Leave Switchboard at the bottom of the settings menu (on a phone, at the bottom of the settings page).
Confirm
The Leave [Switchboard name]? dialog explains "You'll lose access straight away. An Admin can invite you back later." Click Leave Switchboard to confirm, or Cancel.
You're back on the dashboard
You're taken to the dashboard home, showing another Switchboard you belong to, and the one you left disappears from your list. If it was your only Switchboard, you land on Create your first Switchboard instead.
A Switchboard always keeps at least one Admin. If you're the only Admin, the dialog reads You can't leave yet - "You're the only Admin, and a Switchboard always needs one." - and offers two other ways out: Pause this Switchboard (stops its numbers and automations, keeps everything) or Delete this Switchboard (removes it and everything in it, for good). Otherwise, make an existing member an Admin, or invite another Admin and wait for them to accept, then leave.
Leaving is recorded in the Activity log as "Left the Switchboard". No email is sent.
Only an Admin can change roles. You don't need to remove and re-invite anyone - change it straight from the member list:
Open Settings > Switchboard > Members
Admins see a role menu (Admin or Manager) in the Role column of every row. Managers just see the role as text.
Pick the new role
Choose Admin or Manager for the person. Nothing changes yet - a confirm line opens under their row asking, for example, "Make Riya an Admin?" or "Change Riya to Manager?".
Confirm
Click Make Admin or Change to Manager (or Cancel to leave it as it was). You see "Riya is now an Admin" (or "a Manager") and the list updates. For your own row the question reads "Change yourself to Manager?" and the confirmation "You're now a Manager".
What happens next:
You can also change your own role from Admin to Manager, as long as another Admin exists - you'll lose access to the team, billing and most settings straight away. A Switchboard always keeps at least one Admin, so if you're the only Admin your own role menu is locked; hover over it to see why. Make someone else an Admin first.
If the change fails you see "Couldn't change that role" with one of these codes:
Accepting an invite never lowers someone's role. If a person who is already a Manager accepts an older, still-open Admin invite, they become an Admin; an Admin who accepts a Manager invite stays an Admin.
Admins see a fifth tab, Activity, in Settings > Switchboard. It lists the 50 most recent actions on the Switchboard, newest first, each with who did it and when ("What members and Managers have done on this Switchboard - visible to Admins only."). Use the Everyone menu to show one member's actions only.
Someone who has since left shows as "A former member". An empty log says "Nothing recorded yet."
Who gets a Switchboard's emails depends on the role. The full list is on Emails.
Last updated