The Responses tab works like an inbox: each response arrives as Unread, and you mark, tag, annotate, archive or delete it. None of this changes what the person answered. At ClÃnica Vitta, an aesthetics clinic in Miami, the front desk receives the patients' intake forms and uses triage to separate what the aesthetician has already checked from what is still waiting for a callback.
The response number
Each response gets a number of its own within the form, starting at 1: Vitta's first intake form is #1, the next one #2, and so on. The number is never reused: if #15 is permanently deleted, the next one is still #16, with no gap filled.
It shows in the alert email ("Response #42"), in the PDF, in the No. column of the export and in integrations. When you open the response from the email link, the drawer shows the title Response #42. It is the safe way for the team to talk about the same form: "check 42" leaves no doubt.
The table and the status
In Forms › (form) › Responses, the table shows Received at, Status, the form's questions, Tags and Source (the campaign, the site the person came from, or "Direct"). A page icon next to the tags means the response has an internal note.
Each response has one of these statuses:
- Unread — just arrived. Opening the response marks it as Read.
- Read — someone on the team opened it or marked it as read.
- Archived — out of the inbox, but still stored and counted. Archived wins over read: a response that is read and archived shows as Archived.
People with the Viewer role can look but not change the status: opening a response does not mark it as read for anyone.
Filtering and searching
The bar above the table has four filters, which combine:
- Status — Inbox (the default: read and unread, without archived ones), Unread, Archived or All. If a response "disappeared", it is almost always archived: switch to Archived or All.
- Search responses — finds any piece of text in what the person answered, ignoring upper case, lower case and accents: "jose" finds "José". Search looks at the answers, not at tags or notes.
- Tag — shows only responses with that tag. The list offers the tags of the responses on the page you are viewing; if the tag you want is not there, no response on this page uses it.
- Period — whole days: "until Oct 10" includes all of the 10th. Clear goes back to any date.
Clicking the Received at header switches between newest and oldest first.
Opening a response
View response opens the side drawer with everything the response has:
- Download PDF, Archive (or Unarchive) and Move to trash.
- Tags — type and press Enter to create one; up to 10 per response, up to 30 characters each. They are saved right away, with no button. Vitta uses "checked", "callback pending" and the aesthetician's name.
- Internal note — up to 2,000 characters, saved with Save note. Only your team sees it; the respondent never receives it. E.g.: "Patient reported an allergy to acids: call before booking the peel".
- The answers, question by question.
- Consent record — when the form has a terms acceptance: what was accepted and the date and time of acceptance.
- Source and device — received at, invite (when the response came from a unique link), the five UTMs, referring page, landing page, device, browser, operating system, location (city, state and country) and time to complete. Whatever could not be identified shows as "Not captured".
Bulk actions
Tick the checkboxes on the rows and the action bar appears with the number selected. Outside the trash the options are Mark as read, Mark as unread, Archive, Unarchive and Move to trash. The selection applies to the page you are viewing: changing page or filter clears it, so no hidden response is affected without you seeing it.
On Monday, Vitta's front desk filters Unread with the weekend as the period, checks the forms and archives the ones already handled in one go.
Trash
Move to trash takes the response out of the main table. It stays in Trash (the button next to Responses and Partials) for 30 days and is then permanently deleted on its own. Until then, Restore brings everything back as it was: status, tags and note.
While in the trash, the response still counts: it takes up its slot in the form's response limit and keeps the "one response per person" block. Moving to trash does not let anyone respond again. In the trash you cannot change tags, notes or status; you can open it and export.
Delete permanently
Delete permanently exists only inside the trash, always asks for confirmation and cannot be undone. When you delete permanently:
- the response-limit slot is given back;
- the respondent can respond again, even with "one response per person" on;
- if the response was signed, the signature and its evidence go with it. That is why moving a signed response to the trash also asks for confirmation.
Only the account Owner deletes permanently. The Editor archives, moves to trash and restores.
Where to go next
- Exporting responses to CSV or XLSX (Responses collection) — the file uses the same filters as the table.
- Response alerts and email confirmation (Responses collection) — the email link opens the response directly.
- Partial responses, save and continue later and Google Tag Manager (Responses collection) — the Partials view.
- Response PDF (Signature, terms and PDF collection) — what goes into the document.
- Response retention (Security and privacy collection) — automatic deletion over time.
In short: each response has a number of its own within the form that is never reused, arrives as Unread and becomes Read when opened; tags, internal notes and archiving organize without changing what was answered; the trash keeps responses for 30 days, and they still count toward the limit and "one response per person" until permanently deleted, which only the Owner can do.