Messaging and the Outreach Hub

The Outreach Hub is where every drafted message waits for you to read it, tweak it if needed, and approve it before it sends - and where replies come back as conversations.

What it is

The Outreach Hub is the review desk for all your outbound. For each prospect in a live campaign, Handshake writes a tailored message and puts it in a review queue. You read it, keep it or change it, and approve it. Only then does it get scheduled to send. The same screen shows the full back-and-forth with each prospect, so replies, your earlier messages, and connection events all sit together in one conversation.

This is the page that makes good on Handshake's core promise: nothing goes out under your name until a human has seen it.

Why it exists

Automated outbound that sends on its own is how accounts get restricted and reputations get damaged. The Outreach Hub keeps a person in the loop without making them write every message from scratch. You get the speed of having drafts ready and the safety of approving each one. Without it you would either write every message by hand, or trust a tool to send unseen.

Who can see it

Partners, clients, and seat users all use the Outreach Hub. What you see is scoped to wherever you are in the breadcrumb: A partner reviewing across their clients sees more than a single client or a single account. Roles still apply - a view-only role can read the queue but not approve. Admins see everything across all partners.

How it works

The review queue

The Hub opens on a list of messages waiting for you, organised by client, then seat, then campaign, so you always know who a message is sending as. Three tabs sit at the top:

  • To Review - drafts that need a decision from you. The count next to it is your real workload.
  • Approved - messages you have already approved and that are now scheduled to send.
  • All - everyone in scope, whatever their current state.

Each message carries a status so you can see where it stands:

Status What it means
Pending Drafted and waiting for your approval. This is the normal starting state.
Approved You approved it; it is scheduled and counting down to send.
Escalation The platform needs a decision from you (see below) before it can continue.
Sent Delivered to the prospect.

A draft that has sat unreviewed for a long time is marked Stale so you can spot a backlog.

How each message is tailored to the prospect

You are not approving a template. For every prospect, Handshake drafts a message specifically for them, drawing on:

  • The prospect's own LinkedIn profile - their name, role, company, and recent posts.
  • Your campaign brief - who you are targeting, the pain points, and the angle you chose.
  • The sending account's voice, so the message sounds like the person it comes from.
  • The conversation so far, so a follow-up reads as a reply, not a fresh pitch.

The result is a message that reads as if you wrote it for that one person. Your job is to confirm it is right, not to start from a blank page.

Reviewing a draft: Approve, edit, or revise

Open a contact and you see the full Conversation with them, with the drafted message at the bottom ready for your decision. You have three moves:

  1. Approve. If the draft is good, approve it. It moves to the Approved tab and is scheduled to send on the campaign's timing.
  2. Edit, then approve. Change the text (and the subject line, for email) directly in the box. The button changes to Approve Edit so it is clear you are approving your version, not the original.
  3. Revise. If you want a different take but do not want to rewrite it yourself, use Revise and the platform redrafts it for you. Each revision is kept, so you can step back and forward through versions with the arrows (shown as "1 / 3") and approve whichever you prefer.

To turn a draft down entirely, use the reject (trash) button. Handshake asks you to confirm, warning that this deletes the draft and that a new message will be generated on the next cycle unless the contact is muted. Rejecting is not "never contact this person" - it is "not this draft." To stop messaging someone, mute them.

If a prospect has no pending draft but you want to reach out anyway, you can type your own message in the box ("No pending message, but you can write your own here...") and use Send Message.

How your edits improve future drafts

When you edit a draft before approving, Handshake notices. It compares your version to the original and learns from the change, so future drafts for that audience and campaign move closer to how you actually want them to read. Small wording tweaks and larger rewrites are treated differently, but the principle is the same: The more you shape the early drafts, the less you will need to change later ones.

Escalations: When the platform asks you a question

Some situations need a human call, so instead of guessing, the platform pauses and asks. The message shows up as an Escalation in your queue:

  • Negative reply detected. If a prospect pushes back, Handshake flags it rather than replying on its own. You choose Mute and close to stop messaging them, or Unmute and respond to write a reply yourself.
  • A question for you. Sometimes the platform needs information it does not have to write a good reply. It asks, you use Provide Answer and submit your answer, and it drafts the reply using what you told it.

Connection requests

For LinkedIn campaigns, the first touch is usually a connection request. Handshake writes a short, personalised connection note and sends it to qualified prospects automatically, spaced out with human-like timing and kept under your seat's daily and weekly limits. The follow-up message that goes out after someone accepts is what lands in your review queue for approval.

Sent connection requests that go unanswered are withdrawn automatically after about three weeks, so you are not left with a pile of stale pending invites dragging on the seat.

Replies and conversation threads

When a prospect replies, their message comes back into Handshake and appears in the same Conversation view, on the left, with your outbound messages on the right. The whole history - connection request, your messages, their replies, and connection events like "Connection accepted" - reads as one thread, in order. That context is also what the platform uses to draft your next reply, so follow-ups stay on-topic.

Most replies generate a new draft that waits in your queue for approval, exactly like a first message. See Contacts, CRM and meetings for tracking interested prospects and booked meetings.

The golden rule: Nothing sends without you

By default, every message - first touch or reply - waits in To Review until you approve it. The one narrow exception that is active today: When a prospect replies and is ready to book, and a working booking link is available, Handshake can send that booking reply instantly so you do not lose the moment. Everything else holds for your approval.

Limits and what to watch out for

  • Approval is per message, not per campaign. Approving one draft does not approve the rest. The To Review count is your true to-do list.
  • You have about 10 minutes to undo. After you approve, there is a short grace period before the message actually sends. An approved message shows a countdown and a Revert button - use it if you approved by mistake. Once the window passes, it is on its way.
  • Approved does not mean sent yet. Messages send on the campaign's schedule and within account safety limits, so an approved message may sit for a while before it goes out. The countdown is an estimate based on that schedule.
  • Rejecting deletes only that draft. A fresh one is generated next cycle unless you mute the contact. To genuinely stop outreach to someone, mute them.
  • You can only act as the right seat. The queue keeps you on one seat's contacts at a time so you never accidentally approve a message under the wrong identity. Switching seats is always a deliberate move.
  • Account safety always wins. Even with a full approved queue, sending is paced and capped to protect the LinkedIn account. See Seats and account safety.